Faith: An Invitation to Love!

Wednesday, October 14, 2026

Gal 5: 18-25; Lk 11: 42-46

Today’s Gospel highlights faith as an invitation to love. 

Jesus directs his woe messages to the Pharisees and scholars of the law. We may wonder if Jesus is against religion itself because he criticizes the religious leaders often. However, a deeper reading of the Gospel shows that Jesus condemns a form of religion that has lost its heart. Hence, he invites his followers and audience to rediscover the true purpose of our faith. 

The overall tone of Jesus’ woe messages reflects the concern that faith cannot be reduced to a set of rules and regulations. For instance, the Pharisees were meticulous in paying tithes of mint and rue but deserted the core of religion: justice and love of God. This is the contradiction that Jesus exposes. Jesus wants religion to be transformative, not just therapeutic. 

The problem with the religious leaders of Jesus’ time was that though they acted in the name of God, they failed to reflect God’s goodness. They sought honor in God’s name. They led a pretentious life invoking God’s name. They put a burden on people in God’s name. But they hardly realized that if religion did not make us more human, its purpose was lost.

To his disciples and audience, through his preaching and healing, Jesus revealed a different dimension of religion. For Jesus, it is a way of life and an invitation to love. It is an obligation to strive after a life of sharing, solidarity, and accompaniment. By making himself an example of all these, Jesus showed that these things belong to the very heart of Christianity.

In sum, though the Gospel text offers a serious warning, it is also an invitation to renewal. This is how we are called to reflect on faith as an invitation to love. At the end of the day, we must ask what difference our faith has made in the lives of people around us. Christian love is about allowing simple acts to become powerful expressions of our faith. 

Let us pray that we may be aware and respond to our faith as an invitation to love.

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar