Let us begin today’s meditation by listening to the Lord’s words to His disciples in today’s Gospel:
“Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. In truth I tell you, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, is to disappear from the Law until all its purpose is achieved. Therefore, anyone who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of Heaven; but the person who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of Heaven” (Mt 5:17-19).
Yesterday we took a look at three of the seven sacraments of the Church, considering them as a tremendous help from the Lord to reach our goal, which is unification with God in love.
One of the reasons I looked specifically at these three sacraments is because there are attempts to change the Church’s praxis precisely in relation to them, which rightly causes confusion among the faithful. It is part of the way of following Christ to be faithful to the authentic doctrine and praxis of the Church, without getting involved in experiments of any kind, whoever proposes them.
The doctrine of the Church is a great treasure. It is like clear water, flowing from the Throne of the Lamb and soaking the fields, so that the flock of God may obtain good nourishment. If this doctrine is weakened, polluted or even falsified, the People of God suffers the consequences and the shepherds fail in their mission. This means that the many people to whom the message of the Gospel has yet to reach are left without nourishment.
We live in difficult times, which are also a challenge for us… In the face of growing apostasy, this age calls for “messenger announcing peace” (Is 52:7); that peace which the world cannot give (cf. Jn 14:27).
We must rid ourselves of the false thought that our confession of the truth and our conviction that God calls all people to the bosom of the Catholic Church would be arrogant and intrusive to other people, and that it would therefore be better for us to refrain from evangelising. Quite the contrary is the case!
Without ruling out the possibility that perhaps we ourselves, because our temperament has not yet been sufficiently purified, may be too intense, the truth itself is never insistent in a negative sense.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus naturally assumes that the Word must be taught in conformity with the Law, and makes it clear to us that the slightest deviation from the Law will significantly reduce the heavenly reward. This also applies to us Catholics: not even the slightest deviation from the doctrine that has been handed down to us must find a place in our soul, much less can we pass on such errors to others.
Let us ask the Lord for a holy fervour to bear witness to His love for mankind. Not infrequently, this zeal seems to have waned and energies seem to be focused more on intramundane matters. But this is not the Lord’s intention, nor is it what really helps souls.
In Germany – the country I come from – we are currently witnessing a visible apostasy and drift away from doctrine on the part of the official Church in the so-called “Synodal Way”. With the support of two thirds of the bishops, it has been decided, among other things, to perform blessing ceremonies for homosexual couples, regardless of how the Universal Church views this issue.
This apostasy, which has long been weakening the spiritual forces of the Catholic Church in Germany, but which during the pontificate of Benedict XVI could not yet come to light in this way, is now becoming, so to speak, the “official creed” of our country.
It is therefore extremely important that we, as disciples of the Lord, are very vigilant during our Lenten journey and beyond. It is not only in Germany that we are experiencing a deviation from the doctrine and practice of the Church; the trickster seeks his victims everywhere…
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Meditation on the daily reading: http://en.elijamission.net/2021/03/10/
Meditation on the Gospel of the day: http://en.elijamission.net/2022/03/23/