Wednesday of Week 3 of Lent – Gospel

Commentary on Matthew 5:17-19

In Matthew’s Gospel especially, Jesus is shown as not being a maverick breakaway from the traditions of the Jews. He was not a heretic or a blasphemer. He was the last in the great line of prophets sent by God to his people:

…he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ (Matt 21:37)

So in today’s passage, Jesus strongly emphasises that it is not his intention to abrogate the Jewish law, but rather to develop and complete it. In the verses that immediately follow today’s passage, Jesus gives six very clear examples of what he means. He quotes a number of moral situations contained in the Law, and shows how he expects his followers not only to observe them, but to go much further in understanding their underlying meaning.

The Law is not to be downgraded in any way. Rather, it is to be transcended to a higher level. Up to the time of Jesus—and this is clearly exemplified in the Pharisees and scribes as they appear in the Gospels—perfect observance of the Law focused on external acts. Jesus will show that true observance must also be in the heart and mind.

Christians, too, can become obsessed with external observance of Church laws and regulations. It can become a source of scrupulosity and fear. This can happen during the Lenten season when we are encouraged to do ‘penitential acts’. We need to remember that these acts do not stand on their own. They only have meaning if they deepen our relationship with God. In all things, our ultimate guide must be the law of love. No truly loving act can ever be sinful, although at times it may violate the letter of a law.

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Wednesday of Week 3 of Lent – First Reading

Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:1,5-9

Moses reminds the Israelites of the great treasure they have in their laws and customs, a treasure full of “wisdom and discernment”. These laws are life-giving and will bring the people closer to their God:

For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

Other Jewish traditions from this period often emphasise the distance between God and man, indicated by the reluctance even to utter the name of God (as we see even in Matthew’s Gospel).

However, Deuteronomy calls attention to the loving intimacy between God and the people among whom he lives. His enduring presence was symbolised by the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant in the centre of the Israelites’ camp, and by the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, which indicated God’s accompanying presence with his people at all times.

God’s love for humanity will find its supreme expression, however, in the Incarnation, when the Word of God “became flesh and lived among us” as one of us—a concept many devout Jews would find very hard to accept.

But it is in the Law, too, that God is with his people. Through its observance, they express their closeness to him. Yet Jesus was to make radical modifications to this Law to bring it to even greater heights of sensitivity and accountability.

The greatness of any society can in part be measured, first, in the quality of its legal system and, second, in how its laws are administered and observed. This involves close cooperation between law-makers, enforcers of the law, interpreters of the law and observers of the law.

But above everything else, as Jesus clearly indicates in today’s Gospel, is the law of love which does not abrogate, but goes far beyond the Mosaic Law and includes a deep sense of justice, of compassion and unity between people.

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