Word to the Wise
Wednesday, March 10, 2021 - 3rd Week of Lent - Wed
[Deut 4:1, 5-9 and Matt 5:17-19]"Or what great nation has statutes and decrees that are as just as this whole law which I am setting before you today?" [Deuteronomy] "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill." [Matthew]
The evangelist Matthew composed his gospel portrait of Jesus for a predominantly Jewish-Christian audience. These early Christians accepted Jesus but saw no reason to abandon their Jewish identity. The gradual conversion of non-Jewish people and their resistance to Jewish observances such as circumcision and "kosher" regulations about food, etc. created tensions. These tensions were more or less resolved at the "Council of Jerusalem at which non-Jewish converts to Christianity were freed from the necessity of most of the Jewish ritual practices. The destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. added to the gradual disappearance of the formally Jewish identity, but Matthew was trying to assure them of the value of their way of life.
Catholics of all kinds have devotional and physical rituals that reinforce Catholic identity, from holy water fonts to genuflections to fish on Friday to rosaries to novenas, etc. etc.. Any attempt to discredit "popular observances" meets with puzzled and emotional resistance. Tension arises when these popular devotions develop a theological significance that makes them seem magical or at least equivalent to sacraments. Fundamentals can be overshadowed and obscured by incidentals, no matter how popular. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for allowing incidentals to take over the fundamentals of faith. Knowing the difference between fundamentals and incidentals does not destroy the usefulness of a popular devotion, but puts everything in proper perspective. AMEN