Word to the Wise
Wednesday, June 10, 2015 - Wednesday in the 10th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 3:4-11 and Matt 5:17-19]"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." [Matthew]
I come from a family of lawyers. My father was a lawyer and was elected judge. My two brothers are lawyers and my sister [r.i.p.] married one. Some of their children and grandchildren become lawyers. I graduated from law school. Jesus' words about the Mosaic law touch on something that is part of my own identity! In point of fact, we Christians do observe parts of the Mosaic Law: the Ten Commandments! We also strive to follow what Jesus called the two greatest commandments: Love of God and Love of Neighbor. Jesus certainly did not come to do away with those. What did he mean by fulfilling them? He means more than obedience.
The Gospel of Matthew takes a broad perspective of God's plan and how God works through history. Jesus comes, for Matthew, in the center of all of history. What came before Jesus was preparation for Jesus. The "law and the prophets" served that purpose and Jesus represents their whole purpose for being in the first place. He becomes a "new Moses" who comes with a new teaching. The Jews to whom Matthew was writing were concerned about their standing as Jews since they were already in tension with their local synagogues over the subject of Jesus. The words of Jesus are meant to reassure them. Later on, this tension would arise over the keeping of all 613 precepts of the law, which the arrival of gentile converts would provoke. However, the focus would be on Jesus' teaching which is the "fulfillment" of the law of Moses. Our faith is rooted in all the plan of God's salvation and this includes all that came before Jesus as well as followed him. AMEN
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