OCTOBER 14, 2026 FATHER PETER TURRONE
“If you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.”
My brothers and sisters, to be a Christian means to give one’s life over completely to God, and to receive the Holy Spirit inside of us. And the presence of the Holy Spirit inside of us, as he continues to grow, in the measure to which we abandon ourselves to him, and seek to follow him and his promptings, leads us to experience what Paul says. “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
Now all of these fruits are not necessarily present all together at once. So we can experience them in different moments of our lives. Other times we struggle. But the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, gives us this freedom.
Again, so it’s not that we’re just not avoiding sin. So we have these impulses to do what is wrong. And then the law is there to kind of curb that, and remind us of the consequences. But the Holy Spirit, his presence is there, really to inspire us to live this new life.
But what happens if you’re living this life, but then you fall? What happens if you’re a Christian, you received baptism, you’re trying to live the life, but because of past weaknesses, or struggles, or a moment of your life, when things aren’t going in the right way, you give in, and you fall? Into any of the works of the flesh that Paul describes here, in this letter.
Well, the Church had to grapple with this in the beginning. And there was a debate. And today’s memorial for Saint Callistus – and we thank God for this great martyr – helped to bring forward the importance of mercy.
There was a debate. People said, okay, if you committed these sins, if you fell and committed these serious sins – And they are serious sins. They weren’t making light of them, saying, well, they’re not that bad. No, no. These are serious sins.
So they were saying, well, you’ve committed these sins, so therefore, there’s no hope for you. There was no hope for you. Imagine that. So, in a moment of weakness, or whatever took place, there is no hope for you. So you’re cut off from God, and there’s no way you can ever be saved. It’s terrifying.
You can see it in the lives of the saints. Where they had moments, you know, leading up to their full conversion. But they were baptized, and maybe they didn’t live their faith the way they could have, and they fell seriously. So, for them it would have been: “There’s nothing left for us to do.” It’s finished. Just go back, and live the way you used to live. No hope and no mercy.
But, thank God for Saint Callistus, he had a different understanding. He realized the gravity of the sins that had been committed, but he also realized – he said, look, there must be a way forward. There must be a way for people to actually do penance.
So, you recognize that you’ve sinned. Not making excuses. And then there’s a path of penance, a serious path of penance. And then this person, once they’ve shown that they’ve reformed their life, then they can be readmitted to communion, to living within the life of the Church.
So this was Saint Callistus who is the one who we can thank, for allowing this to continue. So the Church took the path, chose the path, of mercy.
Again, this is not in the case for someone who goes back to living in sin. Going back to a stable situation of grave sin. That’s not what he’s saying. So somebody was unfaithful, but then they go back to being faithful. So we have to change our circumstances, we have to go back now to living according to the logic of the Gospel. Which isn’t easy, but it’s beautiful.
And we have this, again all of this, comes from God himself. Jesus tells us in the Gospel. He’s speaking to the Pharisees, and he says, “Woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue, and herbs of all kinds, but you neglect justice and the love of God. It is these you ought to have practiced without neglecting the others.”
So what does that mean?
So, the Pharisees, there were many good Pharisees. But several of them were focusing on the secondary parts. The small things. They were fixated on those things, and by doing that, they thought that they were actually living the covenantal relationship with God.
But Jesus is saying, you know, it’s good that you do that. You should do that. And then our love for God is expressed in big things and in little things. But there was something here that was missing. They weren’t practicing mercy. They weren’t practicing love of God. And justice is to give to God what is his due, and our neighbour what is their right.
And in the same way that we want to experience the mercy of God when we mess up, we also owe it to our neighbour to offer mercy as well. And mercy is how we experience God’s love. That’s how we experience it.
I just think about own life, and I think about the blessing of being a priest. And having many different people come to the church, of different walks of life.
And so these are people that were baptized as infants, and they had fallen away from the Church for different reasons, and then they’ve had an experience of the mercy of God, they’ve come back, and they want to live a new life. And this happens very often. In RCIA you can see this.
And then people are realizing, my life, you know, I took the wrong path, I want to follow Jesus now, because I realize that the world has lied to me. And therefore, now, I want to live my life for God. And I’m going to change my life.
So, could you imagine if Saint Callistus had not made that decision, and God hadn’t used him, to choose the path of mercy? And to have a new way to come back to God? I’d have to say to them, I’m sorry, it’s too late for you. There’s no hope. I can’t imagine doing that.
This is not what Jesus teaches us in the Gospel, and nowhere do his saints teach us this as well.
So we ask God, again, for the grace to live in the freedom of sons and daughters of God in the Spirit. We ask the Holy Spirit to be able to be fully present within us. To grow in us. And that we can also have not only self-control, but also profound mercy for those who have not. So that they can also come back and experience his mercy, and live a new life in the Spirit.
