The gospel readings heard at week-end liturgies now are drawn from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, as remembered in St. Matthew’s Gospel. These three chapters serve as a summary of Jesus’ teaching on the Law of Love that he presents in all of his teachings and actions. After blessing the faithful in the 9 beatitudes—ending pointedly with the words, “Blessed are you when they persecute you”—Jesus effectively replaces the Law of Moses with his New Law. Note well, however, that the Law of Moses is not rejected or watered down, but deepened and made more interior. It is not enough under Christ Jesus not to murder. As disciples, we are forbidden to harbor hatred in our hearts, or wish anyone eternal damnation or destruction. On the contrary, we are commanded to live and to love as Jesus himself did, and through our lives, to help realize the Reign of God for all creatures.
After blessing his People, Jesus tells us that we are salt and light for the world, but these words include stern warnings: We are not to lose our “saltiness,” our Christ-like devotion to God, to truth, to loving service; and we are warned not to hide the Light of God in us by withdrawing from the world, by refusing to proclaim Christ in words and deeds. God in us must be lived and shared. Otherwise, we are not fulfilling the Lord’s will for us to be “salt and light” for the world—a world all-too-burdened by suffering, death, sin. Rather, our task is joyful and life-giving: to live Christ boldly. And Christ assures us: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
And then comes Christ’s New Law for his disciples. It was fashionable in Christian churches during the ’60’s and ’70’s to downplay the law, to emphasize “love” at the expense of radical obedience to God and obeying His commandments. What many of us discovered—sometimes through painful lessons—is that the Law of Moses and the New Law of Christ are ignored or disobeyed only to our own loss. Those who break God’s Law and teach others to do so are leading people into lives of misery, even if they do it out of ignorance. Put more positively: in fulfilling God’s Law, to the best of our ability, trusting in the help of God, we enter into Life, we experience joy, purpose in living, strength of character, peace. For “in His will is our peace.”
Learn well the Law of Moses, and the Law of Christ, and teach them diligently to our children, and put the LORD’s words faithfully into practice. And be careful of sharing in a cultural tendency to water down right and wrong. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good, evil.”
After blessing his People, Jesus tells us that we are salt and light for the world, but these words include stern warnings: We are not to lose our “saltiness,” our Christ-like devotion to God, to truth, to loving service; and we are warned not to hide the Light of God in us by withdrawing from the world, by refusing to proclaim Christ in words and deeds. God in us must be lived and shared. Otherwise, we are not fulfilling the Lord’s will for us to be “salt and light” for the world—a world all-too-burdened by suffering, death, sin. Rather, our task is joyful and life-giving: to live Christ boldly. And Christ assures us: “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”
And then comes Christ’s New Law for his disciples. It was fashionable in Christian churches during the ’60’s and ’70’s to downplay the law, to emphasize “love” at the expense of radical obedience to God and obeying His commandments. What many of us discovered—sometimes through painful lessons—is that the Law of Moses and the New Law of Christ are ignored or disobeyed only to our own loss. Those who break God’s Law and teach others to do so are leading people into lives of misery, even if they do it out of ignorance. Put more positively: in fulfilling God’s Law, to the best of our ability, trusting in the help of God, we enter into Life, we experience joy, purpose in living, strength of character, peace. For “in His will is our peace.”
Learn well the Law of Moses, and the Law of Christ, and teach them diligently to our children, and put the LORD’s words faithfully into practice. And be careful of sharing in a cultural tendency to water down right and wrong. “Woe to those who call evil good, and good, evil.”
