MONDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1 Cor 5: 1-8 Ps 5: 5-7, 12 Lk 6: 6-11
DO LAWS SAVE OR DESTROY LIFE?
Indeed, laws must serve the good of man and empower life, not rob a man of life and love. So the solution with regard to the balance between the observance of the laws and the rule of love is to know the intent and spirit of the laws.
Yet, there is always the danger of falling into legalism, just as the scribes and Pharisees did. For those who can observe the laws, they become proud of their achievements and despise those who are unable to. If such observances are concerned with the religious laws instead of exalting God, the consequence is that we end up exalting ourselves. Having exalted ourselves, we become fault-finding because we tend to compare others with ourselves. We make ourselves the benchmark for holiness. Wasn’t this exactly what the scribes and Pharisees were doing?
They were “watching him to see if Jesus would cure a man on the Sabbath, hoping to find something against him”. Some of us are so obsessed with the right observation of the rubrics and rituals that our focus, like the scribes and Pharisees, is not so much on the experience of the worship during Mass, but in wait to witness the priest or one of the ministers go against some liturgical law, either consciously or unconsciously. If that is the case, we will never be able to get the most out of the worship experience.
But the non-observation of the laws can also occur if we do not understand the original intent of the laws and as a result, fall into self-condemnation, and perhaps even despair. A person who tries to obey the commandments, but fails again and again will after some time, give up all hope and be resigned to his sinful situation. Do we fall into any of these categories, or are we on the side of Jesus, who was filled with love and compassion for the needy? Does Love or Rules Lead You?
Response: Lead me, Lord, in your justice.
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