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Laws matter even in Christianity
To the Editor:
Anarchists, also called antinomians, believe in having no law. Law oppresses people, they believe. We don't need it. They are similar to extreme libertarians. They would be pleased with the Rev. Dr. James Barnes' March 23-24 rant against law.
But you have to have law, even within Christianity, to some extent, certainly the moral law and the law of love (synonymous with charity). Read the 13th chapter of St. Paul's first letter to the Corinthians, where St. Paul says "there are in the end, faith, hope, and love and the greatest of these is love." In the Last Judgment scene in Matthew 25, the criterion for judgment is charity. St. Paul says in Rom. 7:22, "For I delight in the law of God." And he says, in 1 Cor. 9:21, "I am not outside God's law but within the law." And in Matthew 22, our Lord is presented with the question "which commandment in the law is the greatest?" The Savior answers that it is in 1) loving God, first, then t2) Your neighbor and yourself. "The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
So there is legitimate law. St. Paul's frequent rejections of law refer not to the moral law or the law of charity but to the Mosaic Law, that extensive list of 600-some Jewish rules, such as no pork consumption, mandatory circumcision, dress requirements, etc., all now discontinued.
With Christians there is liberty and freedom in God's grace, such that the laws of love and morality are followed with a kind of ease, much like wind in the sails, moving the ship along. The crew doesn't have to row as hard now.
But we are all sinners, and when we transgress the above spiritual laws, we repent. While repentance can be done privately, for serious sins, Christ has provided the comfort of the Sacrament of Penance, referred to in John 20:19-23, when the resurrected Christ tells those first church leaders, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall
retain, are retained." How can they forgive or retain unless they are informed of what the sins are? Thus, confession. With the necessary firm purpose of amendment (i.e., true, heart-felt repentance), penitent Catholics find the words of absolution in the Sacrament very reassuring.
Prayers, such as "counting the beads," and other forms of devotion, are expressions of affection for God and gratitude for his gifts to us. It might surprise some to learn that the Catholic Church does teach that all of this is ultimately unearned by us, gained for us by Christ's death and resurrection, as witnessed by the worldwide opening prayer for the recent Palm Sunday March 24 Mass: "Through the Passion of Your Only Begotten Son, O Lord, may our reconciliation with You be near at hand, so that. though we do not merit it by our deeds, yet by this sacrifice made once for all, we may already feel the effects of Your mercy. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."
Rev. William M. Weary
Pastor
Sacred Heart Church,
Lewistown, Pa.
St. Jude Thaddeus Church, Mifflintown, Pa.