and make themselves unclean by stepping on them.”
Then a teacher of the law spoke up and said, “Master, when you speak like this, you insult us, too.”
And Jesus answered, “A curse is on you also, teachers of the law. For you prepare unbearable burdens and load them on the people,
while you yourselves do not move a finger to help them.
REFLECTION:
We celebrate today the memorial of St. Callistus, pope and martyr (222 +),
a Saint who rose from slave to fugitive to imprisonment and hard labor to deacon to pope in the early church. His biographer,
St. Hippolytus, was his arch enemy who was also martyred later (235). The quarrel between these two saints was the issue of forgiving sinners.
St. Callistus favored greater leniency while St. Hippolytus was afraid that leniency may make sinners take sin too lightly at
a time when being Christian meant standing for the Faith in time of persecution.
The position of St. Callistus finds its roots in the Gospel of mercy that Jesus taught.
In the Gospel Jesus precisely castigated the Pharisees and lawyers who laid heavy burdens on the people while enjoying privileges and perks.
Jesus showed compassion to sinners, a position for which the Pharisees and lawyers took Jesus to task!
Surely, Jesus was not promoting immoral conduct! Like St. Paul, Jesus did not want the litany of sins enumerated by St. Paul.
We say that God hates sin but loves sinners! God desires the “law of the Spirit”
– charity, joy, peace, patience, understanding, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2020