Until I was five years old, my family lived in a house in a suburb of Columbus with a fenced-in backyard. I was thinking about that house and thinking about this concept of placing a fence around your house. I know that for many people, fences are put up as a way to designate their property. But for others, the fence is constructed as a means of protection for small children. The fence is placed up by loving parents who want to protect their children from going out into the street or to keep people or animals or outside things from coming in. And within the fence contains the house. Everything that the children need is contained within this ‘confinement’. They have food, shelter, space to grow, people who support them, places to play, and the love of their parents.
What I have come to recognize as of late is that the Catholic Church and the teachings of Christ in Scripture are exactly like this concept. Much of our world, and many Catholics as well, view the Church as a cage of sorts. People think that in the decision to be Catholic, you are locked away in a cage, bound by rules and commandments, unable to live freely or fully. And people struggle with our Church because they see the rules as a life of destitution and deprivation--with no freedom, no opportunity to do new things, and only control. But with full conviction I claim that the exact opposite, in fact, is the case.
The Lord has set up his Church and has given commandments and moral teaching as a fence to keep us from things that might harm us. He is our loving Father who recognizes the dangers in our world and the way that sin can harm our souls and cause spiritual death. He is a Father who worries for his children. In the practicality of his love, his offers moral teaching and structured rules to save us from sinful nature that seeks our destruction. And if we continue to view the Church in the same way as the fence, we also see that everything we need is in the Church—life-giving water in Baptism, eternal food in the Eucharist, shelter from oppressive society, space to grow and learn what God wants from us, places to play like ministries and apostolates, community with people who support us, and most importantly, the love, care, and mercy of our Heavenly Father.
God did not just provide Moses the Ten Commandments as a way to burden his people. Jesus did not give instruction on morality because he wanted to be a dictator that forces his disciples to live constrained lives of servitude. And the Church today does not provide moral teaching to burden or demean our existence. The rules are given for a purpose—that we "might have life and have it more abundantly" (John 10:10). They are made to guide us to better, more fulfilled lives in which we are able to experience the fullness of God's love. And thus, following and adhering to God's rules and obligations is a form of worship in which we say, by our actions, that we trust God's care and desire for him to be our provider, caretaker, and source of fulfillment. The Catechism article 2062 explains this by saying that our adherence to God's commandments is "a response to the Lord's loving initiative. It is the acknowledgement and homage given to God and a worship of thanksgiving".
Today, let us examine our view toward the Church and toward moral teaching. Do we see the Church as a constricting dictator? Or do we recognize that the structure, rules, and commandments are given out of love by a Father who wants to spend eternity with us? As we reflect, let us also recognize that it IS easy to jump the fence. God gives us the opportunity to choose whether or not to stay inside. But he hopes that we see that the rules put in place are for our safekeeping and our salvation. The fence is there to help keep us from pain and death. Though it feels constricting sometimes when we look out and see all the things we "might be missing", God, our Father and provider, wants us to see that all we need, all we could ever want, is waiting inside the fence. The great paradox is that inside this constriction, we find freedom and fullness of life. Let us thank God for this gift today.
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