VATICAN CITY (CNS) – God’s laws are meant to lead all people to Christ and his glory, and if they do not, then they are obsolete, Pope Francis said in a morning homily.
In fact, the scholars of the law in Jesus’ day were so wrapped up in doctrine as an end in itself, they were unable to see that Jesus was leading people down a new and surprising path toward his glory, the pope said Oct. 13 during his morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives.
Jesus did “strange things,” like “walk with sinners, eat with tax collectors” – things the scholars of the law “did not like; doctrine was in danger, that doctrine of the law” that they and the “theologians had created over the centuries,” he said, according to Vatican Radio.
The scholars were safeguarding the law “out of love, to be faithful to God,” the pope said, but “they were closed up right there,” and forgot all the ways God has acted in history.
“They forgot that God is the God of the law, but is also the God of surprises,” he said.
“God is always new; he never denies himself, he never says that what he had said is wrong, but he always surprises us,” the pope said.
The scholars of the law had forgotten how many times God surprised his people, like when he freed them from slavery in Egypt, he said. They were too wrapped up in their perfect system of laws – “a masterpiece” where everyone knew exactly what he or she was supposed to do; “it was all settled. And they felt very secure there,” he said.
They couldn’t see beyond “this system made with lots of good will,” and they could not read the “signs of the times,” the pope said.
They couldn’t see that what Jesus was doing was a sign indicating “that the time was ripe,” he said. This is why in the day’s Gospel reading (Lk 11:29-32) Jesus said, “This generation is an evil generation,” because it sought the wrong kind of sign, the pope said.
The scholars of the law also forgot that the people of God are a people on a journey, “and when you journey, you always find new things – things you never knew before,” he said. But the journey, like the law, is not an end in itself; they are a path, “a pedagogy,” toward “the ultimate manifestation of the Lord. Life is a journey toward the fullness of Jesus Christ, when he will come again.”
The law teaches the way to Christ, and “if the law does not lead to Jesus Christ,” he said, “and if it doesn’t get us closer to Jesus Christ, it is dead.”
Pope Francis asked people to reflect, “Am I attached to my things, my ideas. Am I closed?”
“Am I at a standstill or am I a person on a journey? Do I believe in Jesus Christ, in what Jesus did,” dying for humanity’s sins and rising again? he asked.
“Am I able to understand the signs of the times and be faithful to the voice of the Lord that is manifested in them?” he asked.
Pope Francis urged people to pray to be able to walk “toward maturity, toward the manifestation of the glory of the Lord” and to have a heart “that loves the law, because the law is God’s.”
But may people also be able to “love God’s surprises and to know that this holy law is not an end in itself,” he said.
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(Editor’s note: in future issues of Mississippi Catholic look for reflections and excerpts from Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, “The Joy of the Gospel ,”in this space.)

An integrated summer camp was held outside Amory in 1974 for almost 40 at-risk children. The camp was an outgrowth of the ecumenical Three Rivers Regional Ministry (TRRM) launched by Glenmary in Mississippi in 1972. TRRM was an effort to share resources, personnel, talents, ideas and finances across parish, county and denominational borders to meet local needs. (Photo courtesy of Glenmary Challenge)

(Editor’s note: This article was reprinted from the Summer 2014 issue of Glenmary Challenge, the magazine of Glenmary Home Missioners, www.glenmary.org.)
When Glenmary missioners first arrived in West Point and New Albany, Miss, in 1965 to establish mission communities, 10 years had passed since the state’s school districts were ordered by the Supreme Court to desegregate, and the Voting Rights Act was about to be signed into law.
During that tumultuous time Fathers Joe Dean and Bob Rademacher (respective pastors of the new missions) worked to call together integrated faith communities in the heart of the national civil rights movement.
In the almost 50 years since those first missioners moved to Mississippi, Glenmary has established and/or staffed 12 missions in the state. Many of those missions were the first integrated congregations in their counties.
Missioners tried to meet the needs of all those living in the region, regardless of background, race or denomination.
In 1974 a summer camp was held for local youth near the Glenmary mission in Amory. The camp was one of the first in the state to be fully integrated.
Eventually, it evolved into Camp Glenmary, which continues to welcome campers every June. The two week of Camp Friendship are open to low-income kids in northeastern Mississippi, followed by two weeks of Catholic Camp, a time when Catholic young people from that same area gather as a group for the unique experience of not being in the minority.
Glenmary’s time in Mississippi came to an end on June 29, when the last three Glenmary missions were returned to the Diocese of Jackson: Houston Immaculate Heart of Mary, Bruce St. Luke the Evangelist and Pontotoc St. Christopher.
“As we leave the Diocese of Jackson, we rejoice that today, the Church is present in counties where our missioners have established Catholic communities, and numerous outreach programs are now in place,” says Father Chet Artysiewicz, president of Glenmary.
But, he adds, there is sadness in leaving a region that has been such an important part of Glenmary’s history as a missionary society.
The decision to move on to areas of mission need in other states is based on Glenmary’s strategic plan to consolidate mission efforts geographically, which enables missioners and lay coworkers to better collaborate and support each other.
Glenmary’s mission efforts in Mississippi were often groundbreaking in ways other than in the area of race relations.
In the early 1990s, lay professional coworkers were hired and trained by Glenmary to start Catholic communities in several states. In all, four missions were called together and established in Mississippi by lay leaders in Eupora, Ackerman, Ripley and Bruce.
Numerous outreach efforts such as sheltered workshops, day care centers and food pantries were begun by missioners and coworkers in Mississippi, with many still in existence. And Glenmary missioners and coworkers have been on the front lines in welcoming the influx of immigrants who have arrived in the state to find employment.
“As we leave Mississippi, I am heartened to see so many of our missions thriving and the members of those missions continuing on with Glenmary’s missionary charism of nurturing the faith and reaching out to those most in need,” said Father Atrysiewicz.