Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 25, 2017 - Wednesday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 6:12-18 and Luke 12:39-48]"Sin must not reign over your mortal bodies so that you obey their desires. And do not present the parts of your bodies to sin as weapons for wickedness, but present yourselves to God as raised from the dead to life and the parts of your bodies to God as weapons for righteousness. For sin is not to have any power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace." [Romans]
"There's no law against it!" "I did nothing illegal!" How often do we hear such things when people are charged with underhanded practices? "I just took advantage of a loophole in the law, etc." is another example. Statements like these can help us understand the words of St. Paul in today's first scripture. They also help us to understand Jesus' condemnations of the religious authorities of his time.
In the case of St. Paul, he is telling his audience that just because they are not bound to the Mosaic Law as a matter of salvation does not mean they can abandon moral righteousness. If they were slaves to the law previously, they are now slaves of Christ, and what the law condemned as immoral is still immoral, but by reason of their being identified with Christ.
In the case of Jesus' condemnations of the scribes, Pharisees, Chief Priests and elders of the people (cf. Matthew 23), it was manipulation of the law to their advantage - the "loophole" approach that served their convenience, while keeping others bound - that comes under condemnation.
St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that the "new law" of Christ is nothing other than the Holy Spirit working in our hearts through faith in Christ. [I-II, Q. 106]. Taken with the "natural law" which is written also in our hearts by a loving and creating God, we cannot justify immoral conduct by an argument that there is no human law against it. We will be held accountable for our conscience or lack of one! AMEN