Fr. Paul's Meditations for Church Year C

Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost: Romans 8:2 - Through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. You do not lose your mind in legalism, you know exactly where you left it! Think Legalism: “Serve” is to do God’s will. Feel Grace: “Serve” is to be in God’s Presence.  Read more

Jesus was sharing with the sinners and tax collectors. They all drew near to hear Him. The Pharisees were off in a distance grumbling about Him. Jesus tells the three parables. Literal thinking sees the point of the parables is show the Love Jesus has for sinners. What was the real meaning of His parables? You have a lost sheep and the shepherd leaves the righteous ninety and nine to search other for the lost sheep. A woman loses her dowry. She may not be able to be married if she does not find the coin. She finds the lost coin and rejoices. Literally, we would think this was about the joy of having sinners repent. Wasn’t that what Jesus was supposed to be working with?  Read more

Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost: Romans 7:22 - For in my inner being I delight in God’s law. If you can't follow a hundred Laws of legalism, then just follow the one Law of grace: Love! Think Legalism: Godliness is behaving godly. Feel Grace: Godliness is feeling the Presence of God.  Read more

Jesus challenged the difference the heart makes between the struggle of trying to literally justify the phrase in the head and the ease of understanding it gracefully. He keeps using His graceful language so that the literal mind will be so frustrated that it might suddenly shift and “come to itself” as the Prodigal Son did in the pig pen. (Luke 15:17 ESV)  Read more

Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost: Romans 7:6 - But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code. Grace people love legalists. People say they have no taste, but they love them gracefully! Think Legalism: Meditate is to think about meaning of the words. Feel Grace: Meditate is to feel the meaning of the words.  Read more

“Be Humble,” is an interesting command. Did you ever try to do it? Jesus says, “All who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” If you faked your humbleness by sitting at the end of the table, would you be exalted?  Read more

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost: Romans 7:4 - You died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. Time spent in legalism is enough to make one believe in the grace of God! Think Legalism: To hear is rationally audible. Feel Grace: To hear is to feel consciously.  Read more

Jesus didn’t have the right to heal this woman just because it was the right thing to do. It was not. It broke the law. The rabbi had the right and duty to quote the Law, remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. The seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work. Why don’t you come back on a non Sabbath day and do your healing? Why pick on this sacred day to break the Fourth Commandment? Jesus had the right to heal on the Sabbath because He was because He was God. He had the authority to break this Commandment and any others He wished to break. As a matter of fact, He did not break any laws; He changed all of the Commandments and all the Laws and the Prophets.  Read more

Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost: Romans 6:14 - For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. The legalists are the cause of all of life's problems and they think they are the answer to all of life's problems! Think Legalism: One rejoices about what happens. Feel Grace: One rejoices about feeling the power that makes it happen.  Read more

The question of biblical authority is ultimately a question of Christology. What we believe about Jesus will ultimately determine what we believe about the Bible. There are two ways of discerning what we believe about Jesus in Scripture. We can come in with our minds made up about the Bible being the Word of God, or we can believe Jesus is the Word of God. If we believe the Bible is the Word of God than Jesus must fit into our concept of who the Bible says He is. If we believe Jesus is the Word of God then the Bible must fit into what He says it is.  Read more