Lights and Shadows

Bishop Wilfredo Manlapaz, talking about and describing perspectives and advantages of BECs in Mindanao, included also some areas of deepening or improvement in the way of BECs (GKKs, in local name). Sometimes man-made rules make enforcement burdensome for the people, especially when some local requisites tend to be stricter than universal Church law, which we call Canon Law. We must try to avoid such a situation.

Hence the mind of Jesus is expressed in the phrase: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk. 2:27). Yes, all legalities, liturgies and rules were or are intended to make man a better person, more humble, loving and considerate to his neighbor, not a hypocrite pretending to be what he really is not. And this conversion is obtained through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that comes through prayer, the word of God, and the sacraments, not by the intricacies of the Law. St. Paul was saying clearly: “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10). So Canon Law advices us on this when it proclaims: Suprema Lex est salus animarum (The supreme Law is the welfare of souls). Man is saved by God’s grace. Graces come in as result of prayer and the sacraments.