Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, 8/29
Today’s readings—especially the Gospel—are a thought provoking manifestation of a reality that can often be a source of misunderstanding: the tension between law and love.
In the first reading, Moses exhorts the people of Israel to observe the “statutes and decrees which I am teaching you to observe.” Throughout the story of Israel we see the extraordinary importance of the law and its observance which naturally became a mark of sanctity towards those who practiced it.
In the Gospel however, Jesus seems to disparage the teachings of the law, or traditions, of the Ancestors of Israel. The Pharisees and Scribes point out that Jesus and his followers are eating their meal with unclean hands—and thus not following these traditional practices.
So what are we supposed to make of this? Does Jesus reject the idea of law? Did he come to replace it with the more enlightened “love”? In one sense we could say yes. St. Augustine famously stated, “love, and do whatever you will.” However, as with all such statements, we must not be quick to determine the profound truth being conveyed here. Jesus’ message is too often taken as a rejection of the law to be replaced with a subjective sense of love. But this would contradict what Jesus says in Matthew: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets! I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” And this is the key.
Rather than replacing law with love, our readings today illustrate how Jesus desires to fulfill the law with the infusion of divine love. Love lived outside the bounds of law is a false love, just as a marriage lived outside the bounds of fidelity is a false marriage. But on the other hand, law without love is “vain”, an emptiness—the same substance of which hell is composed.
Maybe the constant theme of Christ’s moral teaching is the conversion of heart. As one wise friend of mine once said to me: Jesus doesn’t want you to go to Mass—he wants you TO WANT to go to Mass. He doesn’t just want you to not steal, not cheat, not to mistreat yourself or others sexually, etc. He wants you to love others, and to love Him. And if you truly love, then as St. Augustine says, you will genuinely be able to do what you will.
Michael Gokie, Drexel Campus Minister