Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Freedom from the Law
Dear Friends,
A reading from Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans (7:1-12):
Are you unaware, brothers (for I am speaking to people who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over one as long as one lives? Thus a married woman is bound by law to her living husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law in respect to her husband. Consequently, while her husband is alive she will be called an adulteress if she consorts with another man. But if her husband dies she is free from that law, and she is not an adulteress if she consorts with another man.
In the same way, my brothers, you also were put to death to the law through the body of Christ, so that you might belong to another, to the one who was raised from the dead in order that we might bear fruit for God. For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.
What then can we say? That the law is sin? Of course not! Yet I did not know sin except through the law, and I did not know what it is to covet except that the law said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, finding an opportunity in the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetousness. Apart from the law sin is dead. I once lived outside the law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive; then I died, and the commandment that was for life turned out to be death for me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it put me to death. So then the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
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I wish to thank all those who sent me gifts of money for my 45thanniversary of my ordination. May the Lord bless you all.
Below you will find the message of Our Lord and Savior given to Father Melvin. Jesus spoke to him these words,
“Be free from sin, My brother Melvin and all My brothers and sisters who live by the grace I am giving you every day. The Jewish people had what is called the Mosaic Law, which they had to follow, but when I came I called the Gentiles and they were told they did not have to follow the Mosaic Law. They just have to follow what I told them. It is true they have to follow the Ten Commandments and these will last until the end of the world. The Jews today are still following the Mosaic Law, but you who are Christians do not follow that law. You know My commandment: Love one another as I have loved you. Love is the most important part of the commandments. If you love God and love your neighbors, then you will indeed follow all the commandments. However, all the Christians have to be taught the Ten Commandments and they must follow them if they want to reach heaven one day. Come to Me and ask for the graces you need, and I will help you to follow the commandments and it will not be very difficult. I bless you all.”
Father Melvin