THANKS, HOLY SPIRIT! I NEEDED THAT!

Just yesterday, I posted an article regarding a kind of ironic Divine parody that has played out in my life as a Priest and Canon Lawyer.

I confessed how many times I have felt challenged by Pope Francis' teachings and observations about the Church and its mission.  Many times I have wondered how similar my reactions may have been to the priests and lawyers of the Old Covenant who were challenged by the teachings of Jesus.

Today, in what I can only consider to be an affirmation of those thoughts by the Holy Spirit, I read an article penned by Carol Glatz of Catholic News Service.

Reflecting upon  St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (3:21-30), in which the apostle explains only God is righteous and people are justified freely by his grace through Christ, Pope Francis insisted that people are justified by faith, not by works of the law.

The Pharisees and doctors of the Old Covenant claimed salvation came only from fulfilling God’s laws.  

And the Pope warned that the Pharisees and Lawyers are not just Biblical figures of the past.

“There are many of them today, too. That is why praying for us Priests is necessary,” so that today’s ministers will not close the door like the Pharisees did to people seeking God’s mercy and forgiveness," the Pope said.

Pope Francis likewise pointed out that Jesus admonished scholars of the Old Covenant for willfully forgetting that God is more than the source of the law.

“This happens today. The Pharisees, the doctors of the law are not things from the olden days, there are many of them today, too,” the Holy Father said.

As I write the posts which appear on this blogsite, I ask the Holy Spirit's guidance so that I may be an instrument of His Grace.  Sometimes, I ask same Spirit to affirm the thoughts I share.

It seems as though the Holy Spirit has answered that request.

I just wish the affirmation would have been about something other than the ways in which I have been inclined to mirror the Pharisees and Lawyers of the Old Covenant.

In any case, thanks Holy Spirit.  

I needed that!