In today’s Gospel, Jesus says something that should stop us in our tracks: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). He has not come to throw out the rules. He has come to reveal the love that stands behind every one of them. The law was always a pathway to life, and Jesus fulfills it by showing us that every commandment is rooted in love: love of God and love of neighbor.
But here is what makes this remarkable. The Book of Sirach, in today’s first reading, reminds us: “If you choose, you can keep the commandments… Before you are life and death, good and evil, whichever you choose shall be given you” (Sirach 15:15–17). God places before us life and death, good and evil, and then steps back and lets us choose. He does not force our hand. He does not manipulate the outcome. He gives us the extraordinary gift of freedom.
Freedom is, I believe, the greatest gift God gives us. God gives us the freedom to love Him, to follow His ways, to choose life and goodness. And He also gives us the freedom to reject Him, to walk away, to pretend He does not exist. That seems almost absurd. Why would the Creator of the universe give His creatures the power to deny Him? Because without that freedom, love is impossible. If we could only love God because He programmed us to, or required it under threat, it would not be love at all. It would be compliance. And compliance is not a relationship. God wants our hearts, freely given.
There is a wonderful story about a young fish who swam up to an older, wiser fish and asked, “Excuse me, can you tell me where to find the ocean?” The old fish smiled and said, “You’re swimming in it.” The young fish looked puzzled and swam on, asking every fish the same question. Each one gave the same answer. But the little fish kept searching, convinced the ocean must be somewhere else. One day, a wave washed him up onto the shore. And there, gasping for breath, he looked back and finally saw it: the vast, beautiful ocean he had been swimming in his entire life. It had always surrounded him, sustained him, given him life. He just never recognized it.
We are like that little fish. We live and move and have our being in God (Acts 17:28). His love is the water we swim in, the air we breathe. Everything we have, everything we are, exists within God’s love. Yet so often, we search for meaning and happiness in a thousand other places, when all along we are immersed in the very love we are seeking. God’s love sustains us every moment, whether we notice it or not.
And that is precisely why freedom matters so much. God wants us to open our eyes and choose to see what has been there all along. He wants us to respond freely with gratitude and love. The commandments Jesus fulfills are not restrictions on our freedom. They are invitations to swim well in the waters of life. They teach us how to love God and love one another, the singular command at the heart of all the law and all the prophets. When we choose to follow that command freely, we discover the fullness of life God intends for us. And the consequences of ignoring this love are real. When we choose against love, when we act with anger, dishonesty, or selfishness, we are like a fish trying to live outside the water. We may survive for a moment, but we are slowly suffocating.
This Saturday at the 5:00 PM Mass, we have the joy of celebrating with couples renewing their marriage vows at our annual Marriage Renewal of Vows Mass. What a beautiful witness to this Sunday’s message! These couples, some married from 3 to 60+ years, freely chose to love another person for the rest of their lives. And here they are, years later, still choosing that love every single day. That is freedom at its finest. That is the law of love fulfilled in real marriages, in real sacrifice and real joy. I cannot think of a more powerful example of freely choosing love over and over again. Congratulations to all our anniversary couples, and may God continue to bless your love abundantly.
Last Saturday, we witnessed another beautiful expression of God’s love in the sacrament of reconciliation. Fifty second-graders from our parish received this sacrament for the first time, experiencing God’s mercy and forgiveness in a tangible way. What a joy to see these young children choosing to draw closer to God, learning early in life that His love is always ready to welcome us home. Their courage and faith remind us that the sacraments are not just rituals. They are real encounters with God who loves us and invites us into a deeper relationship with Him.
This Sunday, we will offer another powerful sacrament at all our Masses: the Anointing of the Sick. If you or someone you care about is facing serious illness, chronic pain, the challenges of aging, or preparing for surgery, I invite you to come forward during Mass to receive this sacrament. The Anointing of the Sick is not just for those at the end of life. It is for anyone who needs God’s healing touch, His strength, His peace. It is one more way God surrounds us with His love and draws us closer to Him, especially when we need it most.
As we prepare for Lent, which begins this Wednesday with Ash Wednesday. You will notice we are praying the Apostles’ Creed. From time to time, we pray the Apostles’ Creed instead of the Nicene Creed at Mass. Both creeds express the same core beliefs, but they come from different moments in the Church’s history.
The Apostle’s Creed is the older and shorter of the two. It grew out of the early Church’s baptismal profession of faith and is the creed many of us first learned as children. Because of its simplicity and clarity, it is often used during certain liturgical seasons and celebrations, especially when we want to emphasize our shared baptismal faith. Using the Apostles’ Creed is not a change in what we believe. It is simply another beautiful way of proclaiming the same faith that unites us as Christians.
Let this Sunday’s readings set the tone for our journey. We are given a choice: life or death, love or indifference, light or darkness. God will not make the choice for us. He loves us too much for that. He trusts us with freedom. So let us choose well. Let us choose to love God and to love one another. Let us choose the light. And in doing so, may we discover that we have been swimming in the ocean of God’s love all along. Return to read the ebulletin here
God Bless,
Fr. Brendan