20150311
PERFECTION OF THE LAW THROUGH CONTEXTUALIZATION
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Deuteronomy
4:1,5-9 ©
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Moses said to the
people:
‘Now, Israel,
take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them,
that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land that the
Lord the God of your fathers is giving you.
‘See, as
the Lord my God has commanded me, I teach you the laws and customs that you are
to observe in the land you are to enter and make your own. Keep them, observe
them, and they will demonstrate to the peoples your wisdom and understanding.
When they come to know of all these laws they will exclaim, “No other people is
as wise and prudent as this great nation.” And indeed, what great nation is
there that has its gods so near as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call
to him? And what great nation is there that has laws and customs to match this
whole Law that I put before you today?
‘But take
care what you do and be on your guard. Do not forget the things your eyes have
seen, nor let them slip from your heart all the days of your life; rather, tell
them to your children and to your children’s children.’
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Psalm
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Psalm
147:12-13,15-16,19-20 ©
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O praise the Lord,
Jerusalem!
O praise the Lord,
Jerusalem!
Zion,
praise your God!
He has strengthened
the bars of your gates
he has
blessed the children within you.
O praise the Lord,
Jerusalem!
He sends out his word
to the earth
and
swiftly runs his command.
He showers down snow
white as wool,
he
scatters hoar-frost like ashes.
O praise the Lord,
Jerusalem!
He makes his word
known to Jacob,
to Israel
his laws and decrees.
He has not dealt thus
with other nations;
he has
not taught them his decrees.
O praise the Lord,
Jerusalem!
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Gospel
Acclamation
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Jn8:12
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Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
I am the light of the
world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me
will have the light of life.
Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
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Or
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cf.Jn6:63,68
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Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
Your words are
spirit, Lord, and they are life;
you have the message
of eternal life.
Glory to you, O
Christ, you are the Word of God!
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Gospel
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Matthew 5:17-19 ©
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Jesus
said to his disciples, ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or
the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly,
till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall
disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved. Therefore, the man who
infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do
the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who
keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.’
PERFECTION
OF THE LAW THROUGH CONTEXTUALIZATION
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: DT 4:1, 5-9; MT 5:17-19
This
morning, the scripture readings sing praises for the statutes and the
ordinances of God. In the first reading, we have Moses exhorting the
people of Israel to observe all the commandments of God that he has taught
them. For by so doing, they will truly live. And in the gospel,
Jesus Himself seems to concur not only with Moses about the validity of the
laws but He even goes beyond them when He said that He has come to perfect
them. Consequently, He warns that those who break even the least of the
commandments and teaches others to do the same shall not be able to experience
the life of the kingdom. In other words, they cannot truly live
fully.
But if
we ask ourselves honestly, do we really have such regard for the laws
in our lives, whether in our institutions, our country or even the
commandments of the Church and of God? Apparently not. For many of
us, very often we experience the laws as oppressive, as inhibiting our growth,
initiative and our freedom. Thus, instead of giving us life, as promised
in the scriptures, the law has been responsible for our death. If that is
so, does it mean, therefore, that the testimony of scripture is not true?
Now if
we find that we do not have the same conviction and love for the laws like
Jesus and the Jews, it is not so much because the laws are not valid but
because we have lost the context which has given rise to the laws.
What do I mean by this? Simply this.
The
laws of Israel and all other laws that are instituted by society or the Church
have arisen from some historical experiences. Laws are never simply
imposed from above. They are the result of certain experiences that a
community has gone through. And it is those experiences that have taught
them the wisdom of doing things in a certain way. Hence, we must say that
the laws are simply the condensation of the wisdom that a community has gained
through their experiences. Thus, anyone who follows the laws would later save
themselves from repeating the same mistakes that their predecessors have made.
For
this reason, Moses could say confidently that the laws indicate that their
nation is truly a wise and intelligent people, and that when they lived
wisely, then surely God is close to them since they lived according to the
truth which gives them life. Indirectly then, the wisdom of humanity
shares to a certain extent the wisdom of God; and the wisdom of God is often
expressed through the wisdom of the community embodied in the laws.
This
means therefore that laws make sense only to those who have understood the
context that has given rise to the laws. That is why Moses said
immediately after exhorting the people to follow the laws, that they must take
care and be earnestly on guard “not to forget the things” which their “eyes
have seen.” In other words, the laws have deep meaning for the Israelites
because of what they have gone through. They did not see the laws as
something that was external to them but rather as something expressive of the
wisdom gained through their historical experiences.
Hence, once
we lose the context, then the laws become totally meaningless. It is
also important to note that Moses did not simply command the people to teach
their children the laws but also to provide the historical context of the laws
as well. The implication therefore is that if we find some laws
oppressive, it is because we have in the first place failed to understand the
wisdom behind the laws. And we cannot see the wisdom of the laws when we
have detached them from the historical context. Precisely, this was what happened
to the Jews who came after Moses. Instead of allowing the laws to set
them free for life, they obeyed the laws blindly without understanding.
Inevitably, such obedience to the laws became burdensome and legalistic.
They were simply obeying the laws for the laws’ sake and not for their sake.
However,
if we see the context of any law, then we will understand the wisdom of it and
we will obey them but not slavishly. Now to apply the laws intelligently
requires that we understand the principles behind the laws and adapt them
according to the peculiar situations we are in. To apply the laws
without modifying them for our current context would be to distort the true
meaning of the laws. This is what we mean when we say that we should
not obey so much the letter of the laws but its spirit. The spirit of the
law can however be discovered only when we understand the origin and the
original purpose of such laws when they were then instituted.
Indeed,
Jesus could speak convincingly in the gospel that He had come to
perfect the laws. Jesus, as we know in the gospel, lived a
paradoxical life. On one hand, He followed the Jewish laws of His days;
on the other hand, He sometimes took the liberty to break them. Now Jesus
was able to do this because He was not simply obeying the letter of the laws
but He carried out the real purpose of what the laws intended. In
that sense, He did not abolish the laws but brought them to its perfection.
Yes,
today we are invited to grasp the wisdom of the laws of God. We
are called to penetrate beyond the laws of society and institutions so that we
can discover the wisdom and the principles underlying the laws. In this
way, we can live our lives intelligently and rooted wisely in the tradition of
our fore fathers. And when we live lives of wisdom, we become truly
liberated for life and love. But that is not all. We are also
called to teach others as well of the wisdom of the laws. To do so is to
be great in the kingdom of heaven. But we cannot teach others to live the
spirit of the laws unless we ourselves know how to interpret the laws rightly
according to the spirit when they were formulated. Thus, before we can
teach the laws, let us observe the laws in the fullest sense of the word so
that understanding the wisdom and the values of these laws, we can share them
with others.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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