Hi everyone,
Here is the reflection that I will be giving tomorrow at the nursing home. As in the past I am including the Scripture readings for the day below it.
Peace,
Adam
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In today’s first reading we heard Moses telling all the people to obey the Law. Then in the Gospel Jesus told us that He didn’t come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.
So the Law is important right? Yes, it is. Sorry, but I am not going to leave it at that point, I am going to go on a bit longer. Is it the Law that is important or what it comes from and the point of it? Both. Jesus wants us to obey the Law in the commandments, not necessarily in the dietary and purity rules, but in the stuff that affects life. However, when thinking about following the Law I was reminded of a quote from the book The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis. The quote says:
“There have been men before now who got so interested in proving the existence of God that they came to care nothing for God Himself… as if the good Lord had nothing to do but exist! There have been some who were so occupied in spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.”
That is the old issue of missing the forest for the trees. Jesus doesn’t want us to see the Law as simply an end in itself, but as a means to that end. The Law will bring us closer to Him. When we don’t worship false idles it isn’t because we don’t do this that makes God happy, it is the fact that we know that He is the one. When we don’t covet our neighbor’s goods it isn’t because he is that worried about those material things, it is that by coveting our neighbor’s goods we are disrespecting our neighbor, failing to love him or her. We are also disrespecting God when we do this because our neighbor was made in God’s image, just like we were.
So it while it is important to follow the details, the point isn’t in the details, it is in doing what is right for our faith.
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Reading 1
Dt 4:1, 5-9
Moses spoke to the people and said:
“Now, Israel, hear the statutes and decrees
which I am teaching you to observe,
that you may live, and may enter in and take possession of the land
which the LORD, the God of your fathers, is giving you.
Therefore, I teach you the statutes and decrees
as the LORD, my God, has commanded me,
that you may observe them in the land you are entering to occupy.
Observe them carefully,
for thus will you give evidence
of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations,
who will hear of all these statutes and say,
‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’
For what great nation is there
that has gods so close to it as the LORD, our God, is to us
whenever we call upon him?
Or what great nation has statutes and decrees
that are as just as this whole law
which I am setting before you today?
“However, take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.”
Ps 147:12-13, 15-16, 19-20
Responsorial Psalm
R. (12a) Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Glorify the LORD, O Jerusalem;
praise your God, O Zion.
For he has strengthened the bars of your gates;
he has blessed your children within you.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He sends forth his command to the earth;
swiftly runs his word!
He spreads snow like wool;
frost he strews like ashes.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
He has proclaimed his word to Jacob,
his statutes and his ordinances to Israel.
He has not done thus for any other nation;
his ordinances he has not made known to them.
R. Praise the Lord, Jerusalem.
Mt 5:17-19
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”
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