THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH Her Doctrine and Morals Fourth Sunday in Lent 10 March 2013

The Sunday Sermon

Dear Friends,

Jesus is the turning point in all of history. We read how St. Paul reminds us, in today’s epistle to the Galatians, that there are two sons, or two different paths; and we see in today’s Gospel how our Lord is symbolically teaching us the same thing. St. Paul speaks of sons of slavery and sons of freedom. In the Old Testament they were slaves to the Law and obeyed through coercion or servile fear, whereas in the New Testament we are free men who obey through love or filial fear. There is truly a vast difference between the two even though outwardly they may appear the same. One type of obedience gains no merit and is unpleasant the other is filled with merit as well as pleasure and contentment. We all must obey; the only question is how we will obey. Everyone eventually complies in obedience to the will of God. The good are rewarded in heaven for their faithful and loving obedience. The evil obey God’s will of justice when they are punished and must suffer. Even in this life they are already miserable because of their servile attitude. It is God’s will that because they do not love they make their own misery.

Christ came down from the mountain of the Old Testament of servility and the harshness of the Law and entered into the desert that was devoid of the Law. He is inviting and instituting a new Law – the Law of Charity. A law that is open to everyone regardless of heredity, wealth, or position. The Gentiles as well as the Israelites are all invited. The Old Law is represented in the five loaves as there were five books to the Old Law. The two fishes represent the Old and the New Testaments together. The twelve baskets left over represent the twelve tribes of Israel as well as the twelve Apostles.

Before Christ came, the Law was a burden and heavy weight upon the people, because they were acting as slaves in their obedience to the Law; and so it is that many rejected God and turned away to false Gods. These are the children of the slave girl born into bondage.

Jesus put the five loaves (the Old Law) into the hands of His Apostles to distribute and, lo and behold, there is enough for everyone with plenty left to spare. In the New Law where we become children rather than slaves and we take the Laws of God with love and filial devotion of children, we find enjoyment and satisfaction in the Law. We are filled and still there is much left over. We can see with eyes now open how the Law prepared and pointed out the way for Christ. The Law is now not given to us from a single tribe or family, but is distributed to us from various families that God has chosen specifically for this task. The Apostles are elevated not to a worldly priesthood because of their birth and ancestry, but rather they are elevated to an eternal priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek. They are to offer an unbloody sacrifice of bread and wine – a sacrifice that is clean and beautiful, and brings love and joy to all who worthily receive It.

This season of Lent is a penitential season imposed upon us by a law of the Church. We have the option of being children of the slave girl or children of the free woman. In other words, we can enter into penance unwillingly and begrudgingly as the people of the Old Testament (the slaves) did and find nothing in it to feed our souls, not profiting in the least by it, because we only obey servilely; or we can enter into the penance willingly and cheerfully as sons eager to do anything and everything that their Father desires because they love Him, and thus find joy and contentment in our penances. The slaves understand nothing and obey mechanically and without merit. The sons obey with understanding, and love. The Law, given to and obeyed by the slaves, they did not understand because the meaning was hidden. The meaning was hidden because they did not love. The Law that is given to sons is explained and understood because there is charity in the hearts of sons that is not present in the hearts of slaves.

The freedom of the sons is not license as so many mistakenly think. The true sons love their Father (God) and their Mother (the Church); they obey not from compulsion but from love. Those who have true Charity and are therefore true sons are free and they recognize God and the Church, rejecting false gods (idols) as well as false churches. The true Church (the bishops who are true successors of the Apostles) is the only place that we may feed our souls with this miraculous life giving bread that is never depleted but is always more than sufficient.

Let us always strive to be true children of God always recognizing the true Church through which God feeds our souls. To accomplish this it is necessary that we have true Charity (an uncompromising love for God and the Truth). To obtain this true Charity we must humble ourselves in prayer and penance so that we may not be deceived by false teachers. This prayer and penance is done with joy by all the true sons of freedom. May we always be cheerful givers to the Lord and thus be found worthy to be called children rather than slaves.