SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME A

[cappie]

Jesus tells us in the Gospel this week that He has come not to abolish but to “fulfill” the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets.

His Gospel reveals the deeper meaning and purpose of the Ten Commandments and the moral Law of the Old Testament. But His Gospel also transcends the Law. He demands a morality far greater than that accomplished by the most pious of Jews, the scribes and Pharisees. Outward observance of the Law is not enough. It is not enough that we do not murder, commit adultery, divorce, or lie.

Since Matthew’s gospel was written for a community of Jewish converts, it is not surprising that this charter includes teaching concerning the attitude of Jesus to the traditions of old Israel.

Understanding this teaching is important for Christians of later generations if we are to understand how we, as the new people of God, are related to the old Israel, and how we should understand the scriptures of the Old Testament.

During his earthly life, Jesus was a faithful observer of Old Testament customs – though he was critical of the narrow interpretation given them by the leaders of the Jewish people. Clearly, the challenge he brought to the scribes and Pharisees led to confrontations in which he made it clear that he did not seek an abolition of the traditions of old Israel: his words, ‘not one dot, one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law’ were spoken, no doubt. But the words which follow – ‘until its purpose is achieved’ – help us to understand what he meant when he declared, ‘I have not come to abolish the Law and the prophets (i.e. the Old Testament scriptures and the traditions they fostered), but to complete them’.

The Old Testament was an expression of the Word of God, but it was an expression that was to give way to the final expression of the divine Word, in the life, death and resurrection of the one who was the divine Word Incarnate.

The Old Testament gave witness to the eternal truth of God and God’s designs for humanity, but it was only a witness in hints   giving rise to expectations concerning the future.

These expectations were fulfilled in Jesus Christ; but as St Paul tells us in the second reading, this fulfilment was to be a stumbling block to those whose hopes were shaped by expectations of an earthly triumph of God’s people – God’s final self-expressions in Jesus’ Paschal Mystery was something greater, a ‘hidden wisdom that God predestined to be our glory before the ages began’. The New Law, that ‘completes’ and ‘achieves the purpose’ of the Old Testament’s hints, must, of course, be promulgated by Jesus himself. Jesus intimates this in the series of instructions he gives to his followers. Referring to the divine commands of the Old Law (‘you have learnt how it was said to our ancestors’) he goes on to declare, as a Lawgiver of the same authority, ‘But I say this to you’. The first Christians loved the Old Testament – its hints and shadows gave them a fuller understanding of what God did for the world in Christ.

Of Course none of us can achieve on our own that perfection to which we are called.   We do it because of Jesus. Jesus has called us to share the perfect life of the Kingdom of Heaven with him. And we strive for that perfection knowing as Paul tells us and the Corinthians that God gives us the ability to grow, to grow into the full, mature stature of the sons and daughters of God, to be transformed bit by bit by the grace of God into the perfect life of the Child of God, Jesus our brother.

 

That is our calling: to be transformed daily in the way that we live inwardly and outwardly in order to reveal to the world around us that in Jesus we have found something. We have found a new way of living. It is a way of living marked by a desire to make peace with those whom we have wronged or who have wronged us. It is a way of living marked by a respect for others for who they are not as mere objects. It is a way of living marked by a commitment to the truth so strong that our "Yes" means "Yes" and our "No", "No". Above all it is a way of living made possible only through the Grace of God, who loves us, who has redeemed us from sin and death and who makes us Holy.