Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection for Sunday, May 25, 2025

Rules or relationships?

From 2001 until 2010, I was a “Platinum Elite” flier on Northwest Airlines. During those nine years, my relationship with NWA often permitted gate agents and customer service representatives to waive or modify the often confusing, harsh, or strict rules to accommodate whatever my issue might be. The airline valued my relationship more than it valued adhering to rigidly enforced rules. As a result, I flew NWA as often as I could, even when it was inconvenient to do so. To date, I have flown more than 1 million miles on NWA/Delta.

This weekend, we hear about Paul and Barnabas who are trying to form relationships with the Gentiles. They are exciting these “non-believers” with the good news of Jesus Christ, are succeeding in converting them to “the Way,” and are inviting them into relationships with the other followers of Jesus. However, some of the existing members of the early Church were not at all interested in relationships with Gentiles unless the Gentiles first met the requirements of being Jewish. The most important of these requirements was that they be circumcised.

This caused a great deal of stress among the Gentiles and led Paul to seek clarification of the many applicable rules while, at the same time, stressing the importance of the relationships that he had formed with these people. For Paul, the decision was easy – Jesus told the apostles to go to all nations and to baptize them. That is exactly what he was trying to do. Jesus never put any limits or constraints or burdens on this evangelization mission. Paul could not see why his fellow Christians would refuse to allow new members to join when Jesus consistently broke all the rules by associating with anyone who came to Him with a sincere heart.

Last week, we heard that the foundational principle of a follower of Jesus is LOVE. In many ways, love is the opposite of rules. Rules require us to obey and comply. Love inspires us to have a personal response. Love goes beyond complicated, elaborate, rigidly enforced rules. Love is a relationship, not a duty or an obligation. Let’s be careful when we resort to rules to justify behavior that does not reflect our Lord’s very clear mandate of love. Our faith is not about rules, it’s about relationships!

Fr. Mike