Daily Reflection Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

 today’s readings, both Moses and Jesus remind us of the importance of following laws. This obedience is not meant for us to become perfect. God is asking us to observe the commandments because they show us how to love ourselves, other people, and our God. God gave us laws through Moses not to stifle us, not to subjugate or condemn other people. No, the law that comes through Moses introduces us to the love of God.

    Divine law may seem like a compilation of do’s and don’t’s. Yet, God’s rule of relationship with the Divine and with each other fleshes out itself in interpersonal respect no matter the nationality, skin color, sexual orientation, or even what part of the nation is a person’s origin. Now, more than ever, nationally and internationally, we must return to the commandments that God gave us through Moses. Jesus reinforces these, because they teach us mutual respect for each other as a person. They further instruct us to care for the property of others. Much of civic law is based on divine law.

    During this past week, I have been chewing on the idea of “law” in our daily lives. Do we allow law to be an esoteric word to be bantered among lawyers? Or do we listen to what Jesus tells us in today’s gospel: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”?    In his book, Jesus Before Christianity, Albert Nolan, the South African Dominican, states that “Jesus was not opposed to law as such, he was opposed to the way people used the law, their attitude to the law. The scribes and pharisees had made the law into a burden, whereas, it was supposed to be a service.” 

 Notice that Jesus is teaching about law as part of the sermon on the mount. He has already shared with us part of the law which is the beatitudes. These laws are centered on God, ourselves, and each other. Yes, the laws are people centered. We practice them, of course, in the way we treat ourselves and one another, how we show kindness to the hungry and homeless, the way we vote for public officials. As we travel through Lent, let us spend some time evaluating how the commandments, beatitudes, works of mercy and other teachings of Jesus have deepened our relationship with God, ourselves, our family, our friends.