20190327 FULFILLING THE
LAWS PERFECTLY
27 MARCH, 2019,
Wednesday, 3rd Week in Lent
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Violet.
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First reading
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Deuteronomy 4:1,5-9 ©
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Keep these laws and observe them
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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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Responsorial 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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I have not come to abolish the Law and
the Prophets but to complete them
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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.’
FULFILLING THE
LAWS PERFECTLY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [dt 4:1, 5-9; ps 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20; MT 5:17-19 ]
The modern man is averse
to all forms of laws. In the name of freedom and relativism, laws are
rejected. He
wants absolute freedom to do what he thinks is good for him, regardless of what
others think or how others are affected. He is a law unto himself.
He accepts no laws except what he believes in. So any attempt to impose a
law from without is considered an infringement of human rights. The irony
is that such understanding of freedom leads to a state of amorality, chaos, and
abuse of the common good of all.
On the other hand, there
are those who advocate obedience to the laws. They insist that all laws must be observed
meticulously, to the minutest detail. They are legalists and would spend
time splitting hairs over the details of how the laws are to be interpreted and
applied. The laws must be observed regardless of the situation and the
context. They would apply them without taking into consideration the
circumstances, the context and the spirit of the laws. When such laws are
imposed without respecting the true spirit and rationale of the laws, it leads
to slavery and the laws become burdensome. Instead of giving life, the
laws become an obstacle to a happy life.
Then we have a third
situation, which is the most common approach that many people take, and that is
to obey those laws that we agree with and reject those that we think are silly. But we have to be careful in using
this principle in reading the bible for St Augustine reminds us that if we were
to believe what we like in the bible and reject those that we do not like, then
we are not believing in the Word of God but ourselves. Selective reading
and acceptance of the laws is no different from those who do not accept the
laws at all. If the Bible must agree with us before we accept it as the
Word of God, we cannot say that the bible is inerrant and God is the author of
the bible. It means that we have made ourselves the judge of the Bible.
For this reason, Jesus
in the gospel made it clear when He said, “Do not imagine that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets. I
have come not to abolish but to complete them.” Jesus could not
contradict what God had given to Moses and to the prophets. The teachings
of Moses and the prophets remain valid even in our times. Their teachings
are not abrogated. That is why Jesus said, “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.” Jesus came precisely to fulfill
the laws by making the laws relevant to the people in His days, through
reinterpretation and contextualization.
This is done by
rediscovering the spirit of the laws. What is the spirit of the
laws? It is summed up in different ways. Jesus said, “In everything do to others as
you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” (Mt 7:12) St Paul wrote, “Owe no one
anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has
fulfilled the law. The commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery; You shall
not murder; You shall not steal; You shall not covet’; and any other
commandment, are summed up in this word, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love
does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the
law.” (Rom 13:8-10) Jesus
also warned us, “those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and
those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” (Jn 5:29) The laws were given to us
through Moses so that we could be guided in walking the way of truth and love.
All the laws are focused
on loving God and loving our fellowmen. These are summed by the Lord when He was asked
which commandment was the greatest. He said, “The first is, ‘Hear, O
Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God
with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with
all your strength.’ The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as
yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mk 12:29-31) But all these laws must be
fulfilled in love. We do not fulfill the laws out of resentment or fear
but out of love. That was what St Paul reminded us when he wrote about
the gifts of the Holy Spirit. “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and
of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am
nothing. If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so
that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Cor 13:1-3)
Hence, the laws are good
and they are meant to give us life, to teach us how to love. For the good of the people, God gave the
laws to them. Moses said to the people: “And 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.” The laws are not meant to make life difficult
for the people or make them slaves but to set them free to love rightly and
wisely. This was the privilege of Israel, for as the psalmist says, “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. 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.”
Unless we see the wisdom
of the laws, we will not be able to embrace them wholeheartedly. This was what made Moses say, “Keep
them, observe them, and they will demonstrate 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?” Thus, the task of
legislators and teachers of the laws must help the present generation to see
the relevance of the laws according to the current context of our times.
Some laws are no longer applicable to our days, not that they are wrong but the
context and circumstances have changed. So laws must be seen within
context by examining the spirit and the principle underlying such laws.
Only then can we extrapolate for our use. A judicious reading of the laws
is required and not just blind conformity.
But the real Spirit of
the laws is to live in the Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God can
guide us and empower us to carry out the laws. St Paul wrote, “The law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of
death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not
do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with
sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of
the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set
their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the
Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” (Rom 8:2-5)
Without consciousness of
His love and mercy for us, we are powerless to keep the laws even if we know
they are good for us.
This is the reason why Moses reminded the people of the underlying
presupposition for them to keep the law, which is to remember the love and
mercy of God for them when He led them out of Egypt, the land of slavery into
the Promised Land by His mighty arms. “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 your children’s children.” Indeed, we must teach our children
not just the laws but the spirit behind the laws and the power to do it.
This is what the Lord instructs us to do. “Therefore, the man who keeps
them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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