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t. Paul, who loved Jesus and had clearly understood what salvation was, taught us that the "children of the prom- ise" (Gal 4:28) - that is all of us, justified by Jesus Christ - are not bound by the law, but are called to the demanding lifestyle of the freedom of the Gospel. The law however exists. But it exists in an- other way: the same law, the Ten Commandments, but in another way, because it could no longer be justified by itself once the Lord Jesus had come. And therefore, in today's catechesis I would like to explain this. And we ask: What, according to the Letter to the Gala- tians, is the role of the law? In the passage we heard, Paul says that the law was like a pedagogue. It is a beautiful image - that deserves to be understood in its correct meaning. The Apostle seems to suggest to Christians that they divide the history of salvation into two parts, and also his personal story. There are two periods: before becoming believers in Christ Jesus and after receiving the faith. At the center is the event of Jesus' death and resurrection, which Paul preached in order to inspire faith in the Son of God, the source of salva- tion, and in Christ Jesus we are justified. Therefore, starting from faith in Christ there is a "before" and an "after" with regard to the law itself, because the law exists, the commandments exist, but there is one attitude before the coming of Jesus, and another one afterwards. The previous history is determined by being "under the law." And those who followed the path of the law were saved, they were justified; the subsequent one, after the coming of Jesus, is to be lived by following the Holy Spirit (cf. Gal 5:25). This is the first time that Paul uses this expression: to be "under the law." The underlying meaning implies the idea of a neg- ative servitude, typical of slaves: to be "under." The Apostle makes it explicit by saying that when one is "under the law" it is as if one is "watched" and "locked up," a kind of preventive custody. This period, St. Paul says, has lasted a long time - from Moses, to the coming of Jesus - and is perpetuated as long as one lives in sin. The relationship between the law and sin will be explained in a more systematic way by the Apostle in his Letter to the Ro- mans, written a few years after the one to the Galatians. In summary, the law leads to the definition of the transgression and to making people aware of their own sin: "You have done this, and so the law - the Ten Commandments - say this: you are in sin." Indeed, as common experience teaches, the precept ends up stimulating the transgression. In the Letter to the Romans he writes: "While we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are dis- charged from the law, dead to that which held us captive" (Rom 7:5-6). Why? Because the justification of Jesus Christ has come. Paul suc- cinctly expresses his vision of the law: "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law" (1 Cor 15:56). A dialogue: you are under the law, and you are there with the door open to sin. In this context, the reference to the pedagogical role played by the law makes total sense. But the law is the pedagogue that leads you where? To Jesus. In the school sys- tem of antiquity, the pedagogue did not have the function we at- tribute to him today, namely that of supporting the education of a boy or a girl. At the time he was instead a slave whose task was to accompany the master's son to the teacher and then bring him home again. He was thus to protect him from danger and watch over him to ensure he did not behave badly. His function was rather disciplin- ary. When the boy became an adult, the pedagogue ceased his duties. The pedagogue to whom Paul refers was not the teacher, but the one who accompanied his ward to school, who watched over the boy and brought him home. Referring to the law in these terms enables St. Paul to clarify the role it played in the history of Israel. The Torah, that is, the law, was an act of magnanimity by God toward his people. After the election of Abraham, the other great act was the law: laying down the path to follow. It certainly had restrictive functions, but at the same time it had protected the people, it had educated them, disciplined them, and supported them in their weakness ... This teaching on the value of the law is very important, and de- serves to be considered carefully so as not to be misunderstood and cause us to take false steps. It will do us good to ask ourselves whether we still live in the period in which we need the law, or if instead we are fully aware of hav- ing received the grace of becoming children of God so as to live in love. How do I live? In the fear that if I do not do this, I will go to hell? Or do I live with that hope too, with that joy of the gratuitousness of salvation in Jesus Christ? It is a good question. And also a second one: Do I scorn the Command- ments? No. I observe them, but not as absolutes, because I know that it is Jesus Christ who justifies me.
GUEST COMMENTARY POPE FRANCIS I 4 OPINION
THE CATHOLIC FREE PRESS AUGUST 27, 2021
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Wanted: A Catholic Chaim Potok
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n the three decades since the Revolution of 1989, Po- land's many cultural achievements include mastering the craft of creating the 21st-century historical mu- seum. Examples include the Warsaw Uprising Museum in the national capital; Krakw Under Nazi Occupation 1939- 1945, built on the site of Oskar Schindler's factory; and The Family Home of John Paul II - Papal Museum, in the late pope's hometown, Wadowice. Each of these exem- plary museums combines a traditional, linear approach to telling a historical story, using the artifacts often found in such exhibitions, with brilliantly executed interactive displays that lead the visitor "into" the history being explored. I know of nothing so well done in the United States; the Polish museums put the Smithsonian's Mu- seum of American History to shame. The greatest of these contemporary Polish efforts is Polin: The Museum of the History of Polish Jews, which is built on the site of the wartime Warsaw Ghetto and opened in 2013. I spent many hours there in October 2016 and left with the thought that this just might be the greatest historical museum in the world. Using the con- temporary Polish method of combining traditional ways of historical storytelling with digital and interactive dis- plays, Polin (which in Hebrew can mean either "Poland" or "Here you shall rest") unveils a complex, too-often tragic, and unfailingly interesting story of overlapping cultures with rigorous honesty and palpable compassion. Reli- gious and cultural artifacts, paintings and photographs, and those interactive displays combine to immerse the visitor in a millennium of human experiences and en- counters, all of which teach important truths. Polin's 430- page catalogue has an honored place in my home, and I never cease to be amazed by its riches. During my visit to Polin in 2016, I was struck by how much of the history of Hasidic Judaism in Poland and Lithu- ania was somehow familiar. And then I figured out why: it was thanks to two wonderful novels by the late Chaim Po- tok: "The Chosen," published in 1967, and its sequel, "The Promise," published in 1969. I recently re-read both books and was struck again by how much of an education in central and eastern European Jewish history Potok offers his readers through the character of David Malter, an expatriate Russian Talmudic scholar living in Brooklyn. Hasidic Jews who have somehow escaped Hitler's murder machine are resettling in Professor Malter's neighbor- hood in the immediate post- World War II years, and Malter's explanations to his son, Reuven (the novels' narrator), of how the Hasidim came to be and what they believe are fas- cinating. They're also accurately crafted nuggets of the turbulent religious and cultural history that's explicated in depth at Polin. I've probably read "The Chosen" and "The Promise" a half-dozen times, and on each reading I find that, in David Malter, Chaim Potok drew a portrait of the perfect father: a man of firm conviction, but also of infinite pa- tience with the struggles of youth and the eternal foibles of humanity; a deeply pious and traditional man who is not afraid of modernity; a profound teacher whose rever- ence for revealed truth does not lock him into an intellec- tual bunker; a parent with whom an emerging adult can talk freely, knowing that the older person respects the intelligence and freedom of the younger. Potok's novels are intensely Jewish and deeply Ameri- can in a way that hasn't really been replicated by U.S. Catholic authors. American Catholicism could use a Chaim Potok today. For the fictional battles in "The Cho- sen" and "The Promise" between David Malter and his reform-minded colleagues in a modern Orthodox yeshiva, and the scholars at the venerable Hirsch Talmudic acad- emy who refuse to concede an inch to modern methods of studying ancient texts, mirror some of the modern-day challenges in the U.S. Church. How can we learn from what modern archaeology, linguistic studies, and histori- cal research teach us about the Bible without treating the scriptural text as a literary corpse to be dissected? How do we gratefully receive and honor ancient rituals and forms of worship while avoiding their fossilization and allowing for their development? How do religious authori- ties and religious scholars interact for their mutual ben- efit, and for the good of the community they share? Reading "The Chosen" and "The Promise" is an uplift- ing experience. And, in the ways of Providence, it hap- pened that I finished the latter on the day the Divine Office included this great text from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans: "To the Israelites belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law-giving, the worship, and the prom- ises; theirs were the patriarchs, and from them came the Messiah-."
THE CATHOLIC DIFFERENCE George Weigel
I found the treasure in a field
CNS PHOTO VATICAN MEDIA
Pope Francis greets a person with a rosary during his general audience in the Vatican's Paul VI hall Aug. 18. The pope continued his series of talks on St. Paul's Letter to the Galatians.
The instructive value of the law
So what do we do with the commandments? We must observe them , but as an aid to the encounter with Jesus Christ.
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n our mid-summer weekday Masses, we read a series of parables from the Gospel of St. Matthew. These stories were perfect for summer with their portrayal of Jesus and his disciples by the sea and their images of farmers laboring in their fields. One of these parables really caught my attention this sum- mer. "The Kingdom of heaven is like a treasure buried in a field, which a person finds and hides again and out of joy goes and sells all that he has and buys that field" (Mt 13:44). As I meditated on these words a flood of emotions arose in my heart. We had recently celebrated the first-ever World Day for Grand- parents and the Elderly and I had been so happy to see our residents and their families enjoying them- selves during our celebrations. Sitting quietly in the chapel, the joy welling up in my heart served as an affirmation of my vocation. Ever since my days as a teenage volunteer in a home of the Little Sisters of the Poor, the elderly have been for me the treasure buried in a field - a precious treasure uniquely worth leaving everything else for and devoting my life to. Over 40 years after my first en- counter with the frail, memory-impaired residents of a nurs- ing home, the elderly and our mission of hospitality to them are still my greatest joy. How I wish that more young people would discover the joy and fulfillment that can be found sharing life with the el- derly, like I did! And so, I make this appeal to young people: As the number of older persons in our population continues to grow at an exponential rate, I urge you to consider pursu- ing a religious vocation or a career at the service of our most vulnerable seniors! They are worth your effort and hard work, and they deserve our attention. As I reflected on the parable of the treasure buried in the field, I couldn't help dwelling on a specific detail - the treasure was hidden, per- haps even dis- carded. I think this also applies to the elderly, who all too often find themselves relegated to the margins of our frenetic lives. In his homily on the World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Francis asked, "When was the last time we visited or telephoned an elderly person in order to show our closeness and to benefit from what they have to tell us?" He continued, "I worry when I see a society full of people in constant motion too caught up in their own affairs to have time for a glance, a greeting or a hug. I worry about a society where individuals are simply part of a nameless crowd, where we can no longer look up and recognize one another. Our grandparents, who nourished our own lives, now hunger for our attention and our love; they long for our closeness. Let us lift up our eyes and see them, even as Jesus sees us." Recent demographic projections indicate that by 2030 roughly 31 million Americans will be over the age of 75, and we will be facing a shortage of crisis proportions in the num- ber of geriatric-trained caregivers. Surveys cite two reasons why so few young physicians choose to work with older adults - geriatrics is one of the least lucrative specialties in medicine and it is also one of the least glamorous. The same survey ... included one positive finding. Among 42 medical specialties, geriatricians reported the greatest level of job satisfaction! So, if you want to make a difference in the world, if you want to do something truly counter-cultural and if you want to find fulfillment, cherish the elderly. May they be for you, as they have been for me, a pearl of great price!
I urge you to consider pursuing a religious vocation or a career at the service of our most vulnerable seniors! Sr. Constance Veit, lsp
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