Much More than Rules

An open road cutting through a low-lying, scrubby countryside beneath a bright, clouded sky in black and white.

A quiet road stretching across the open landscape, evoking Christian life not as rigid constraints, but as a journey into freedom.

“Whatever happens is always an occasion that challenges us, along our journey, to go deeper into the nature of faith.”
— Julián Carrón
Julián Carrón Much more than rules

Julián Carrón - When a different gospel creeps in, Saint Paul asks again: what is faith, really?

“I am amazed that you are so quickly forsaking the one who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel,” Saint Paul writes to the Christians of Galatia. The Christian community—everyone who has adhered to Christ—does not live its faith in some Platonic heaven. It lives it in history, and so it can be influenced by things that do not belong to its faith.

Judaizers had infiltrated the community in Galatia; in addition to the Gospel of Christ, they sought to impose submission to the Law. For Saint Paul, this meant renouncing the Gospel as he had received and embraced it. But the Galatians were confused and let themselves be swayed by the “gospel” the Judaizers preached. Saint Paul seizes the opportunity to challenge them: What is the Gospel, really? Whatever happens is always an occasion that challenges us, along our journey, to go deeper into the nature of faith.

What is faith? Is it the Gospel as it has been handed down to us, an event of life? Or is it simply a set of added rules? This question is always in the background—even today. The temptation to live the Gospel by reducing it to a set of moral rules is always lurking. That is why, when we are challenged, we too can use the opportunity, as Saint Paul did, to go deeper into the nature of faith: What is faith? What is this Gospel? Because, as Paul says, “the gospel preached by me is not of human origin… it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.”

What kind of Christian experience has each of us had that enables us to resist any influence?

Julián Carrón

Julián Carrón, born in 1950 in Spain, is a Catholic priest and theologian. Ordained in 1975, he obtained a degree in Theology from Comillas Pontifical University. Carrón has held professorships at prestigious institutions, including the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. In 2004, he moved to Milan at the request of Fr. Luigi Giussani, founder of Communion and Liberation. Following Giussani's death in 2005, Carrón became President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, a position he held until 2021. Known for his work on Gospel historicity, Carrón has published extensively and participated in Church synods, meeting with both Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.

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God Never Abandons His Vineyard