How should I respond to this?

[JRKH]

For me, this really is the key that totally obliterates the position alluded to in the original post, to wit, “Jesus came to condemn the Pharisees and their set of rules and therefore, we don’t really have to do anything.”

This position is wrong, and in Matthew 23, Jesus comes right out and says

Much of the rest of that particular chapter lists a series of woes with which Jesus condemns the Pharisees; and the theme that unites all of them is hypocrisy and blindness. For example:

It was the hypocrisy and the blindess of the Pharisees that Jesus condemned, not the fact that they had “rules,” and I would challenge the OPs brother-in-law very strongly on this point.

Amen - Thank you for expounding on the reference. I was unable to at the time.
This is exactly what I was hoping to point out.


Peace
James

 

[slh3016]

Amen - Thank you for expounding on the reference. I was unable to at the time.
This is exactly what I was hoping to point out.


Peace
James

Thank you both. This is excellent. I’ll have my husband very gently bring this chapter up to him the next time it is mentioned.

 

[TimothyH]

Problem is that he views Catholicism as a “works based religion” and that anything required (i.e., confession, Mass, etc.) are man-made traditions. His opinion is that anyone can plainly see that Jesus was talking symbolically in John 6 and he says that John 6 and communion are NOT even the same thing. However, he did admit that he’d never read the church fathers on the Eucharist, etc.

And on that note, he even let his unbaptized children participate in communion at our {Protestant} church service the other night. He sees no problem with that (which now that we’ve come to see it differently, I guess bread and grape juice aren’t really a problem )

My whole thing is that if a religion is correct then it should be demonstrable in one’s life. If he is full of anger, resentment, pain, anxiety and not at peace then something is clearly wrong with what he is doing.

If you however, are at peace during times of tribulation, if you suffer through pain with a joyful attitude and happily go about life whether you have little or much, then people will notice. This approach takes time but is the most authentic

*We have to act in such a way that others will be able to say, when they meet us: this man is a Christian, because he does not hate, because he is willing to understand, because he is not a fanatic, because he is willing to make sacrifices, because he shows that he is a man of peace, because he knows how to love.

• St. Josemaria Escriva*

If he is obstinate about the subject of religion and rules then it might be a wise not to try to force the issue and just be his friend instead. This approach takes time. Forcing a conversation about doctrine and dogma won’t do any good if he has it in his mind that he is correct.

-Tim-