Word to the Wise
Wednesday, October 25, 2023 - Wednesday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 6:12-18 and Luke 12:39-48]Brothers and sisters: 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 power over you, since you are not under the law but under grace. What then, Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? Of course not! [Romans]
There's an old joke about Catholic life Everything is prohibited unless it is permitted and then it is mandatory! The Mosaic Law governed just about every aspect of daily and religious life for Jews. Anything not prohibited was permitted. This, of course, led to a lot of casuistry and looking for loopholes - the ages old game of "What if.....? What happened to St. Paul on the road to Damascus made him realize that salvation was not a matter of legislation but faith in Jesus Christ. It was not obedience to the Law of Moses that saved a person, but faith in the fulfillment of the law - its whole purpose - in the person of Jesus Christ. Did this mean, for Jews, that the law of Moses had no authority? No, it did not mean that. A good Jew would still be bound to it as a matter of Jewish identity. Until Gentile converts started entering Christianity, most Christians were also Jews. Jesus himself was a Jew!
Did that mean, for Jews and Gentiles alike, that "anything goes" with regard to conduct as long as one "believed in Jesus?" The answer to that was and is a resounding NO. St. Augustine's comment: Love God and do what you will! has been misquoted to that effect. Christian conduct in daily life came to be more and more influenced by Greek philosophy from Plato, Aristotle and Stoic teaching. These values were incorporated into the way Christians were figuring out how to live the life of faith.
We Catholics, especially in the Latin rite, are accustomed to a lot of rules governing every aspect of our lives, especially the theological and liturgical life of the Church. But moral life developed out of some of the church fathers, especially St. Augustine, who were themselves influenced by Greek moral philosophy. The focus gradually shifted from "Do good.." to "avoid evil." "Evil" became more and more legislated and led to the same kind of casuistry that the Mosaic Law created. I hear the question often in confessions: "Is it a sin to.......?"
St. Paul's advice in today's first scripture is a good step in the right direction away from excessive reliance on human legislation toward understanding why Jesus died for our sins in the first place. Love of God and neighbor is the first and most important of all laws. AMEN