Saturday, 7/26/14
Jeremiah in the first reading spoke against one of the
shortcuts people take rather than lead genuine religious lives. He said you can
be saved “only if you reform your ways and your deeds.”
Specifically, Jeremiah was speaking against one religious
shortcut that had become popular in his time. People, while giving up on
spending prayer time in the temple, had come to trust in the value of knocking
on the temple gates. The practice had them knocking three times while saying,
“The temple of the Lord. The
temple of the Lord. The temple of the Lord.”
From time to time we Catholics come up with shortcuts to
salvation. The first one I can think of is receiving Holy Communion on nine
consecutive First Fridays. (That is a fine practice, but it does not guarantee
our salvation.) I heard about a gangster who was assured he’d go to heaven if
he never took off his Green Scapular. Things didn’t look good for him when he
died after his surgeon took off his scapular.
Yesterday, the Feast of St. James, had thousands of people
visiting his tomb in Basque country, assured that being there on the Feast of
James would get them into heaven.
No, Jeremiah tells us that the trick of being saved is to reform
our ways, to deal justly with our neighbors, and to be kindly toward
aliens.
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