True Religion

The WORD in other words (2022) by Fr Bar Fabella SVD – St Joseph Parish, Oriental Mindoro

Tuesday 2nd Week in Ordinary Time

The jeepney for that day going to Bangued (Abra) was still on its way up while we were waiting for it at the point where cars could no longer go further. It was in Malibcong, my second assignment as a priest way back years ago.

While seated, a group of young people approached me and asked, “Do you think you will be saved?” I replied, “Yes, I hope so. Why do you ask?” “We don’t think so,” they said, “because only those who belong to our religion can be saved.” Then they started preaching while quoting passages from the Bible.

After a while, I said, “Are you done? Well, sorry to tell you, for us Catholics, anybody, even those who had nochance of hearing about God and Jesus but lives an honest and holy life can be saved. Your God must be cruel.”

We usually encounter groups that try to win us to their side by their countless arguments against our beliefs. In our Gospel, if we were in Christ’s place, what would be our reaction to the Pharisees? There are two ways we can react. Either we yield to their insistence or summon our courage and angrily shoo them away without even presenting our side.

Here we see Christ both in his fearlessness and kindness of heart by trying to win them over. Calmly, he summarizes what true religion is and points out the errors of the Pharisees. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”