Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Fr. Adam Royal
January 29, 2021 - 11:00 AM
Audio Recording
As Christians, we spend too much time thinking about our sins. We reduce the faith to a set of moral laws. In doing so, we distort the faith and wander off the path which Jesus left for us. We should spend more time meditating on Jesus’ words, especially these words, the Sermon on the Mount. Christ calls us to much more than merely avoiding sin. He wants us to be poor in spirit, meek, merciful, to make peace. This is the essence of following him. We are to let go of our egos, our selfish desires, and unite our will to God’s will. It is in that perfect obedience of faith, of abandoning our desires, that we discover Jesus and walk with him. Our sins are those things which stand in the way. They are what separate us from the life of the beatitudes. The moral law helps us rid our lives of those barriers to God. But the moral life is not an end in itself. Even if we were free of all sin, that would not make us holy or righteous. Christ does not call us to merely be sinless, he calls us to be perfect like he is. We must unite ourselves to his poverty, his humility, his mercy. Only then are we true Christians. So while we must confess our sins and avoid evil, our focus, our hearts, should not be set on such things. Rather, they should be set on Christ himself, on his life and the way of perfection which he left us.