We
have all, in one way or another, had something to do with the law. Especially
in civil law, where the penalties are money or property, matters generally boil
down to a simple issue; what is the minimum I can get away with? Whether it be
maintenance in a marriage case or compensation for damages, the defendant will
try to argue down the amount due, using all the evidence at his or her
disposal. Watch one episode of Judge Judy
and this will become abundantly clear.
Law is aimed at regulating just
relationships between people. It is a necessary part of a well-ordered,
functioning society. But it has two serious shortcomings; it sets the terms for
the minimum required, and it does nothing to promote reconciliation
and love; rather, it tends to accentuate differences and even increase
bitterness. Law requires something outside itself to achieve true healing
between those involved in its process.
When God gave Israel its Law, he
intended it to be a means of regulating relationship between Israel and
Himself. With it came a very special requirement that was to govern all the
Law’s other commandments; the Law of Holiness. “Be holy, for I, the Lord your
God, am holy.” But ultimately, a Law written on tablets of stone seemed to
produce hearts of stone (Ezekiel 36). Both Ezekiel and Jeremiah (31,31) foresaw
a new law written in the very heart of man. This law was an living,
personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which fulfils and exceeds all other
laws. It is the perfect fulfilment of the Great Commandment: “Love the Lord, your
God, with all your heart and with all your strength and with all your might…and
your neighbour as yourself.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes the
provisions of the old Law and overtrumps them one by one. What were written
Laws to be followed to the letter, as was the case in the religion of his day,
he transforms into attitudes and the condition of the heart. The observance of
the Law by the teachers of his day was minimal. Of them he says to his
disciples, that if their observance of God’s Law is no deeper, “you will never
enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” He restores the demand to “love the Lord
your God with all your heart.” With ALL your heart. Jesus has
given his all for us; he wants us, if we really want him for all eternity, to
give our all to him.
ARE we giving
our all to him? Or are we doing what we hope is the basic minimum to get into
heaven? With Jesus, it is all or nothing. Let us rededicate ourselves to him
today, and give him the All which he asks of us.
Fr Phillip.
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