The Law Does Not Make a Man Good but the Encounter with Christ Does

This week’s readings are all about the law but we are reminded by Pope Francis (Aug 12, 2021), that the commandments and the Law direct us toward Christ and what is more important is encountering Christ. The law does not make a man good but the encounter with Christ does.

In this week’s reading, we see the Pharisees and Scribes preoccupied with external rituals of purification to be seen as holy and they miss out on the real experience with Jesus. They prided themselves on having higher moral standards and observances. They were too busy looking down on others that they failed to see the actual presence of God in their midst.

C. S Lewis explains in Mere Christianity that pride clouds our judgement and hardens our hearts. He says that pride is the greatest evil and all other sins are trivial in comparison. Pride is the reason Lucifer became the devil. He adds that pride is like a “spiritual cancer” that defiles a man and makes him, devoid of love, contentment and even common sense.

“The sin of pride divides people and makes us presume to be better than others”

Pope Francis

In the Gospel (Mark 7: 15), Jesus is more concerned with the heart because what comes from within that defiles man. He is not interested in the external observances rather what lies deep within our hearts.

Christianity as explained by Pope Benedict XVI is “not an intellectual system, a collection of dogmas, or a moralism. Christianity is instead an encounter, a love story, an event.”

We are only Christians if we have a relationship with Jesus, which then opens our hearts and mind to God’s wisdom and truth.  Let us not deceive ourselves like the Pharisees and Scribes, who did not experience Christ and thus failed to know the meaning of forgiveness, joy and love.