Waivable protocols

IN reaching out to those who are still far from the

Church, those who are even hostile to it, those in the peripheries,

etc., as we should, following the example and command of Christ, a

most basic and commonsensical principle to follow is that we avoid

using the same standards and criteria, the same protocols that those

who are already very much in the Church follow.

  

            It’s like in the family where you have grown-up children

and a little child and a little baby. We treat them differently. We

expect the little child and the little baby to make some mess and we

would just clean it up, while giving them some training appropriate to

their condition. Even among the grown-up children, you can have those

who are healthy and sick, strong and weak, etc., and we treat them

according to how they are.

  

            There obviously are common things that have to be observed

by all, and these are what we call the essentials. In the end, the

ultimate essential is love, the love that comes from God, a love that

can adapt itself to any situation, because as St. Paul said in his

Letter to the Romans, “love is the fulfillment of the law.” (13,10)

  

            The other things, like the protocols about how to pray,

how to make sacrifice, how to attend Mass, etc., can be waived if the

conditions warrant and even require it. We have to be discerning and

prudent in applying the protocols to different kinds of people.

  

            We have to contend with a great variety of differences

among the people, and we should just have to learn to deal with that

reality. Among the most obvious things that we need to do is to have

constant monitoring of these differences and constantly studying as

well how these differences can be handled accordingly.

  

            The differences can come in terms of age, culture,

profession, social and economic status, intelligence level,

temperament, ideology, political preference, etc. It’s about time that

these differences are closely monitored and regularly inventoried,

with appropriate plans and strategies of how to deal with them

properly.

   

            We cannot and should not absolutize what only has relative

value. And vice-versa, of course. We should not relativize what has

absolute and permanent value, no matter what the conditions and

situations on the ground are.

  

            As already said many times, what is of absolute value,

what is truly and ultimately essential, what is non-negotiable, is

love, a love that comes from Christ. And if we look at how Christ

showed and lived out that love, we can say that he did away with many

of the legalisms and human traditions of the elders at that time to

reach out to those who were the lost sheep, the lost coin and the

prodigal son.

   

            Imagine what he did to show this love. Being God, he

became man. His first 30 years of hidden life were spent just like how

everybody else spent their time—working and doing the usual duties.

Even in his public life, he led a simple and austere life despite the

preaching and the wonderful miracles that he performed.

  

            In the end, he allowed himself to suffer all kinds of

indignities all the way to being crucified just to assume all our sins

and reopen the gates of heaven for all of us. St. Paul said that he

was made like sin without committing sin just to save us. (cfr. 2 Cor

5,21)

  

            It’s love more than merely following some laws, customs

and traditional practices that matters. He, of course, subjected

himself to these laws and traditions, but when the demands of love

transcend the scope of these laws and traditions, he simply did what

he had to do out of love, even if he ended misunderstood, persecuted

and ultimately executed.

  

            This example of love of Christ is what we have to follow

when we try to obey his command that we love one another as he himself

has loved us.