From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts–
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,
whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’
will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
Matthew 5:17-26, excerpt from today’s Gospel (long form)
It is a serious error to think that Christianity replaced Judaism. God works in our human history, in the lives of actual families with memories extending back at least to Abraham nearly 20 centuries before the Nativity. Jesus is deeply rooted in the history of his own people. The teachings of Moses, the words of the Jewish prophets, the songs and poems of the Jewish wise men, the histories of the Jewish people, their leaders and kings—these provide the culture within which Jesus was born and grew in age and wisdom. That culture gives us the keys to understand the God-man and his teaching. The welcome he received as well as the resistance he provoked (for resistance to the prophets was also a part of that culture). Jesus spoke within Jewish tradition and to it; he built upon it, as he had always meant to do.
He states clearly that we must “not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.” Rather, “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” It takes beginning with the Jewish Law to know what “fulfilling” means in actual human lives. One aspect of “fulfilling” is bringing the life-giving power of following Christ to the whole world—and Jesus chose a dozen Jewish men as the foundation stones of the resulting world-wide communion. Those men were born, bred, and soaked in the Jewish way of life.
Jesus’ first example of fulfilling the Law in today’s Gospel is particularly timely for us today, as war continues and threatens to spread in central Europe. The Law instructs us not to kill. Jesus looks deeper, at the roots—the anger, the hatred, the disrespect and prejudice in our hearts that leads to killing. Overcome those and there would be no killing. Those roots run deep within us, we all know. Purifying them takes some doing, some serious help, some gifts from God—topics for other days and other parts of the New Testament. The Law itself can be hard to keep consistently, but it is the ground upon which the foundation stones are laid. That is the very ground Jesus builds upon.
For further reflection:
Christianity recognizes its roots, its historical foundation, in the Jewish Scriptures–that is why a “Christian Bible” always binds the Old Testament with the New Testament. A New Testament alone is simply not “the Christian Bible.” We need the Old Testament so we can see and sense the contrast as well as the continuity between God’s revelation before and then in and with Christ. The Old Testament shows us God working with recalcitrant people in a wide variety of situations and historical contexts. Many of those can still speak to us in our day. One of the greatest lessons is that no matter how slow to learn, how hard-headedly wrong, how sinfully inclined people may be, God our Father will try, and try, and try again to bring them closer to him. He may let them go on their own as they insist for a while to experience what that is like, but he is always, always, ready to take them back.