“Peter rose and said to the apostles and the elders, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you make trial of God by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we shall be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” And all the assembly kept silence;”
Excerpt, First Reading, Thursday 22nd May 2025 – ACTS 15:7-21.
So, it is really good to be religiously adherent to the teachings of our religious sect.
Such loyalty to conformity to the tenets of our religion enables a seamless worship.
This type of conformity also furthers the cause of uniformity and oneness of purpose and identity of such religious sects.
Take practising Catholics for example. We should be baptised. Then ensure that we have also done confirmation.
For those of is who will get married, we must get married in the Church.
We are to attend Mass at least on Sunday and other days of obligation.
We should be in the state of grace to solemnly participate in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist and receive the Holy Communion.
Then, we must also fast and observe abstinence according to the teachings of the Church.
We are required to join and be active members of at least two pious societies in the Church. Etc.
Now, it is really good to adhere to all of the above and others not mentioned.
All of these make us good Christians and staunch practising Catholics.
However, will only doing these take us to heaven?
As a staunch practising Catholic, because I must be in the state of grace to receive the Holy Communion at Mass, I may come to church early enough to corner a Priest and make him hear my confession.
After quickly doing the penance, I will actively and solemnly participate at Mass.
Unfortunately, right after that Mass, I may go back to my every day life and plunge myself back into the life that caused me to sin and commit those same sins that I just confessed and did the given penance.
Therefore, while I may be flaunting my religiosity before the eyes of the world, and I am seen and perceived as a pious person, in my closet, I am busy grappling with deliberate repeated sins.
Dear friend, today’s teaching makes it clear to us that, we can only be saved by the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
We must know that religiosity will not save us.
Once in Christ, His Spirit that is in us avails us the grace to live above our temptations.
My fear friend, for the sake of emphasis, it is good to conform to all that make good Christians. However, we can only be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Have a fantastic day folks.
#SAINT_RITA_OF_CASCIA! #Blessed_Carlo_Acutis! #Pray_for_us!
-Akase F. Agabo
22nd May 2025.