1 Timothy 1:3-11. Paul is charging Timothy to remain in Ephesus and help certain people who are trying to teach the faith, but are being pulled astray by "myths and endless genealogies" and "vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding" that the faith flows from love, and love from a pure heart and a good conscience. Instead, these people are becoming Pharisee-like - using the law to punish. Paul reminds us that the law is good when used and taught properly - it is "not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners." He then lists some of the many kinds of sinners to whom the law applies - murderers, immoral persons, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and any other person engaging in activity "contrary to sound doctrine" in accordance with the gospel.

What Paul is warning against here is a trap many of us, myself included, can all fall into sometimes, especially when we really start to "get" the faith. When we see it for what it is, the perfect path to God, to love and to eternal happiness, we want to learn more and more. In that bloom of wanting to learn, some of us can get pulled into the weeds of the doctrines, and the laws, the "endless genealogies" before we're ready for them. (In fact, we may not ever be ready for them, it might not be our path or our calling to know all the intricacies and technicalities that support all of Church teaching.) There is certainly no harm in knowing the rules and technicalities, as long as we understand why they are there, and that they are not the foundation of the faith. The foundation is love, as Paul reminds us.

If we do allow ourselves to get caught up in the technicalities, we can be tempted to start using them against other people who are striving in the faith just as much we are. We might catch them in a legal technicality and scold them for it. It reminds me of an earlier reading I had where the Jews were being allowed to worship again after a long time without. Some came, in all joy, but without washing their hands first. Instead of berating them for this, the king welcomed them back and prayed to God to forgive any of their slight misdeeds. It also reminds me, in a secular sense, of the mask scolds throughout the lockdown. We cannot know, on an individual basis, why a person is or is not wearing a mask. Treat them with love, and forgive their transgression (if, indeed, it is even a transgression!).

When people are seeking God in all sincerity, but might make a misstep, whether because they forget, are not told, or even because they simply forgive it in themselves this one time, we are not to be "the enforcers" towards them. We are not to wield what may be our greater knowledge of the "rules" as a weapon against the just. The rules, the law, is to be taught to the truly disobedient. It is there to help the ones who cling to their sin, who proudly or in ignorance follow their path of immorality, murder, or other sins, not just one time (or even over and over again, but realizing they are being sinful and trying to change), but rather denying or not knowing the sin of their behavior at all. That, Paul says, is when the law comes into play. Those are the people who need to hear the rules. But even then, the law is to be told them from a spirit of love - of wanting, truly, to help them see the error of their ways and turn away from their sin.

This is a fine line for all of us (and one the US bishops are grappling with now in many ways). We do have a duty to speak the truth, and admonishing the sinner is a spiritual work of mercy. None of this is meant to deny that duty, and we are negligent in our faith if we do not have the sincere concern for the salvation of others in our hearts and, when necessary, on our lips. Warning others of the traps of real sin is an act of love, and is something we must do, and do lovingly. But it is not for those of us who are trying to evangelize to learn the technical rules and use them against the minor transgressions of other sincere believers. Don't we all have our own minor transgressions to deal with?

(P.S. - I didn't blog yesterday - I'm telling myself that it was because my reading and reflection were really meant just for me, I do think they were, but it also may have been me shirking my responsibility😬! In any case, yesterday was Ezekiel again! 38: 18-23, the destruction of Gog.)