Christ my life
Friends in the Lord, to be a Catholic means to live a certain way of life – to live according to a moral code which, begins with the ten commandments but goes beyond that to the beatitudes. We are called to love our neighbor as ourselves, and even to pray for those who hurt us and hate us: to pray for our enemies. We are to be persons of integrity and honesty; and to be chaste and holy. So we have a moral code that God has given us.
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But our moral code is in many ways similar to other religions. Buddhists and Hindus would agree that we should be faithful to our spouses, to be truthful, and to be pure. And Muslims would agree for the most part. These religions would not agree however, that we should love our enemies, yet there ARE many similarities. For this reason, some say: all religions are about the same.
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But then they miss the point of our Faith. The Catholic Faith is not really about a moral code. Saint Paul hammers away at this: he says that we can’t think of our faith as just ‘keeping the law.’ The heart of our Faith is not a moral code, it is the Divine Person, Jesus Christ. God has come to earth, and has done a great thing to save us. He has revealed himself to the world, now he asks: who do you say that I am? Am I merely a good moral teacher? That is not the answer.
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Jesus is God made Man, who came to unite himself to us. Our salvation is through Faith in Jesus, the Divine Man. This claim therefore, makes our religion TOTALLY different from others. God has visited his people – he has taken on a Body, and he wants us to acknowledge him, love him, and praise him, and of course, follow him in a moral way of life.
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The gospel says: The Father loves the Son, and has given everything over to him. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.
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If you want to hurt someone, refuse to acknowledge them. Refuse to speak to them or even about them. This is the worst sin against our Lord, to ignore him. Our Lord says: ‘He who acknowledges me, I will acknowledge before my heavenly Father,’ ‘He who does not acknowledge me, I will not acknowledge before my Father.
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Our religion has a moral code. But what it’s all about, is Jesus Christ; He is God, whose Sacred Heart is aching for our love and our witness. This is central to our faith.
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We read today, the high priest said to them: ‘We gave you strict orders to stop teaching in that name. But Peter and the Apostles said in reply, ‘We must obey God rather than men.’
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So too, we ourselves are called to be witnesses, witnesses of Jesus Christ in the world.
