We know that Jesus summed up God’s law in the
commandments to love God and love our neighbor.
Paul sums up God’s law in the same manner in todays reading from his
letter to the Romans. Living in God’s love will help bring us closer to
God’s commandments. However, we know that this is not always easy
to do in practice. I was chatting with
some members of the RCIA class last night after our session had ended, and I commented to them that as a
priest, it is not always so easy for me to apply God’s law to some of the situations I face in my ministry here at St James. That is what is so interesting for us as we learn
about the saints, about how lived out a faithful life of discipleship in the
gray areas of their lives.
As Catholics, Charles Borromeo might not be very
well known to us, but he was an important missionary and prophet in our Church,
just as St Paul was. Borromeo lived in the era of the Protestant
Reformation, a time when our Church was under great scrutiny and attack. He was
born into noble family in Milan, Italy, being related to the powerful Medici
family. When his
uncle was elected as Pope Pius VI, Borromeo became the cardinal and
administrator of the important Italian Archdiocese of Milan. He was named Bishop of Milan at a very young age,
a position he could have used for his own benefit and power. Yet, he
lived out a life of service, being very influential in the Council of Trent and
promoting the system of seminaries that we have today to educate our priests. Charles Borromeo could have lived a life of great
luxury and privilege, but he gave much of his wealth to charity, led a very
simple life, and took out enormous debts in order to feed the victims of the
plague in his city. Like Charles Borromeo and St Paul, we are all
called to lives of holiness in our own way. May all of us be able to discern the ways to
which God is calling us to live out our lives of faith as we live in the light
of God’s love.
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