Jesus wants people to understand that the commandments are there to help us to be loving, respectful, just, merciful people, and to care for God's creation

Good morning, happy Wednesday and many blessings.

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:17-19) once again we see that Jesus frequently angered the Pharisees by breaking the law. He pulled ears of corn on the Sabbath. He healed on the Sabbath. He touched the unclean. It seems clear that when he speaks of the Law, he is speaking of it in a transformed sense as defined in his teaching that only two commandments are necessary – to love God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

The law of love reaches to the four corners of the earth and to the end of time. No being escapes the demand of this law. When this law is honored, all the other laws fall into place.

Jesus did not come on earth to abolish what had already been revealed. The law and the prophets indicate the mind of God. The Son of God just added a divine dimension to them. Such teaching should hold sway for us, while heaven and earth endure.

It is bad enough to break one of these commandments, but to teach someone else to do the same is terrible. It is useful for us to ask ourselves, do we proclaim such teaching, or following our own opinions do we oppose his law? We need to see the sacredness of all God’s teaching.

Jesus seems very supportive of the Jewish law at this point, but the early Christians, like St. Paul, felt free to break away from many Jewish teachings. What is God saying to me here?

Jesus was very conscious of the spiritual harm we can do to other people, especially young people, by bad example or ill-advised advice. Do I think before I speak on spiritual matters?

Jesus wants people to understand that the commandments are there to help us to be loving, respectful, just, merciful, caring for God’s creation. Have I ever put law before love in my attitudes or actions? Talk with Jesus about this.

All the law and the prophets is summed up in the law of love?   St. Paul speaks of giving my body to be burned, but without love, it is as nothing. How is it that we constantly put so many demands and ‘laws’ before the law of love? Is it because it is so challenging, so without limit. I am called to give nothing less than my all!

What is it like to read this? Can I dare to ask for this gift? To give my all?  As the poet said “lest having thee I might have naught beside” Talk to Jesus about this? Do I want this gift? Or maybe I am at the stage where I am only able to want, to want it?

Have I grasped the heart of my religion? Do I concentrate on loving God and my neighbor? Is there more love in the world because of my being around? In the evening of life I will be examined in love, not in the outer aspects of religion!

Blessings,

Fr. Luis+