Message from Fr. Brito:

Ash Wednesday masses: 7 AM, 12 noon and 6 PM

The Lord Jesus Christ said: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”

     So the first question we may want to ask is: What are his commandments? What is our Lord referring to?

Many people think that Ten Commandments are different than the Commandments Jesus put forward.  After all, didn’t Jesus reduce the Ten Commandments to only two? What is the greatest commandment? Someone once asked him and he replied:

“To Love the Lord you’re God with all your heart and all your soul and to love your neighbor as yourself.”

     He also said: “I give you a new commandment, Love one another as I loved you”

So was Jesus abolishing the Ten Commandments?

Well, Let us take a look at what he says in today’s Gospel.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.”

So there it is, from the mouth of Jesus himself, the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us, declares the commandments as vital to enjoying his friendship.

      People are questioning these commandments as never before. Asking question and even church officials have brought the commandments into debate. The Pope himself has called groups of bishops to look at the issues of today. Unfortunately this has resulted in the questioning of the moral teachings of the Church.

        There are certain things that cannot change, for example:

Marriage is only between one Man and one Woman. The Church, even under the disguise of acceptance and love, can never bless same sex unions. Even the Pope cannot make this declaration. Abortion can never be accepted as a choice that is good.  Those are but a few examples of people wanting the commandments of God to be over turned.

      But Jesus says we must keep his commandments. He even explains them in a more precise way in today’s Gospel.

Many today, including clergy say that the commandments are too difficult for people to follow. Why doesn’t the church just change them and have a little compassion and love?”  They say: “The Church is too rigid and refuses to change with the times.

       Lets look at what Jesus says again in todays Gospel:

“Whoever breaks one of these commandments and teaches others to so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus really wants us to have pure minds and hearts and that is what he tells us in the later part of todays Gospel.

     Fulfilling the Commandments is not out of our reach. We all have the capacity to fulfill them. Listen now to our first reading: “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God you shall live, he has set before you fire and water; to which you choose, stretch out your hand.

Before man is life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.