Readings: Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9; Psalm 147; Matthew 5:17-19
I love oysters … but am I allowed to eat them? Since the Book of Leviticus states that “anything in the seas or in the streams that does not have fins and scales is detestable” (Leviticus 11:11), can we eat them without contravening the law of Moses? In today’s gospel we read that “not one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). Are we, therefore, doomed to be over-scrupulous, and to respect strange laws whose purposes seem to belong to a bygone age? Are oyster-eaters the least in the Kingdom? At first glance one might make the mistake of thinking that rules have to be followed mechanically and we might even consider that observances make us holy. But this is precisely what the Pharisees thought. Law is a protection, which allowed them not to be criticized. Today, Jesus shows a much deeper interpretation of the law and asks that our righteousness should exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees… In what respect? In the Old Testament law, God made things holy by separating them from what was unholy and the law of Moses followed this pattern accordingly. But Jesus reveals that this distinction has a more profound meaning. The fulfillment of this law reaches its climax in the apparent contradiction of the beatitudes in the section preceding today’s gospel. Jesus fulfills the law and makes us holy by uniting holy things with what used to be unholy!
Fulfillment is not a silly mechanical application of strange rules. It is more profoundly the freedom of inclusiveness rather than the slavery of separation between holy and unholy. Laws about food are fulfilled by Jesus’ eating at the table of sinners. Therefore, as the famous French Thomist Jacques Maritain used to say, “we have to distinguish in order to unite.” So Jesus fulfils the law by bringing out its perfect and inner meaning: the reconciliation of what is holy and unholy … The distinctions we make are ordered to a deeper unity. In an ecclesiological point of view, this gospel challenges us today: unity is not reached despite diversity, but through it … distinction need not mean separation.
During this time of Lent, I wish us to discover this freedom offered to us by Jesus’ fulfillment of the law … and to have the opportunity to eat a lot of oysters!
I somehow stumbled across a biography of Henritte DeLille while reflecting on your post and thought about how she achieved so much by breaking the rules of her society. There is such logic to Christ's teaching on rules. Love God and you will, naturally, love your fellow man as yourself. Then you will want to follow rules that make sense because they help you respect and love others and that leads you to God.
ReplyDeleteHer love of God lead her to confront the racism of her society and some in the Church just to help others. It makes one wonder about their own commitment to their fellow brother and sister.