Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Spirit of the Law - Homily for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

          On January 1, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing more than 3 million slaves in the ten Confederate States.  Many historians see Lincoln’s bold act as a “Second American Revolution.”  Professor Joseph Fornieri agrees, but only to the extent that it “means that Lincoln completed the unfinished work of 1776.”[1]  According to Fornieri, Lincoln didn’t abolish or supplant our nation’s founding principles; he clarified and extended them to all.  Abraham Lincoln did the right thing because understood both the letter and the Spirit of the Law.  Today’s readings challenge us to do the same.  

          Today’s readings seem to contradict each other.  On the one hand, our first reading and our Psalm urge us to “keep the commandments,” to “walk in the law of the Lord.”   But in our Gospel, Jesus seems to be rewriting the very law that the Old Testament authors encourage us to uphold while telling us that he has “come not to abolish but to fulfill” that law.  What does he mean? 

Well, we first have to understand that God communicates his “mysterious and hidden wisdom” to us gradually.  God didn’t just dump the whole of Revelation on us all at once; he prepares us to welcome his supernatural Revelation in stages,[2] in the manner and at the times that he knew were best for us to receive them.  God’s Revelation culminates in his incarnate Word, Jesus Christ.  In other words, Jesus came to finish the story.  So when Jesus tells us that he has come not to abolish but to fulfill the law, he does so by adding himself to it.  Jesus perfected the law by imbuing every action under the law with his very love.  Jesus’ life, passion, death and resurrection teach us the true meaning, the Spirit of God’s law, which is love.    

          In our Gospel, “Jesus looks for the spiritual intent behind the commandments and tells people that this is what the law really means.”[3]  While the commandments focus on the final act, Jesus focuses on the origin of each sinful act, what the rabbis called ‘evil imaginings.’[4]  When Jesus speaks against killing, he identifies anger at the root of this sin and commands us to cure it with love through forgiveness and reconciliation.  When he speaks against adultery, he points to lust at the root this sin and commands us to cure it with love even by drastic means, if necessary.  When he speaks against swearing oaths, he calls out our propensity to lie as the underlying sin and commands us to cure it with love by simply telling each other the truth.  “While the Pharisees kept the external requirements of the law, Jesus teaches us to interiorize the law and observe its spirit.”[5]  In each instance, Jesus teaches us to follow the commandments in letter and Spirit by curing the root cause of our sins with his love.  

          Therein lies our challenge.  To understand and follow the Spirit of God’s law, we have to dig deeper; we have to take the words of the commandments to heart, find Jesus in them and act on them with love.  As we examine our consciences in light of God’s law, we have to identify the root causes of our sins and discern Christ’s loving approach to curing them.  Discernment requires faith, self-awareness and a lot of courage.  It isn’t easy to find fault in ourselves, let alone to fix it.  So we pray together with the psalmist, “Give me discernment, that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart.”  If we address every moral issue we face from the heart, if we discern Christ’s loving approach in all of the challenges we face, we will always follow God’s commandments in letter and in Spirit, just as Abraham Lincoln did in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation.

President Lincoln didn’t see himself as a revolutionary.  He didn’t set out to abolish or supplant the principles of our founding with the Emancipation Proclamation.  Through discernment and, no doubt, a lot of prayer, Lincoln grew to understand that there was more to our founding principles than mere words.  He “recognized the incompatibility between the principles of the Revolution and the practice of slavery.”[6]  Abraham Lincoln understood both the letter and the spirit of the law, and he acted upon them with love, freeing more than 3 million people from slavery.  Christ calls us to uphold both the letter and the Spirit of God’s law and to act on them with love so that we can free ourselves from slavery to sin.




[1] Joseph R. Fornieri, Abraham Lincoln:  Philosopher Statesman (Carbondale, Southern Illinois University Press, 2014) at 23.
[2] See Catechism of the Catholic Church 53.
[3] Jude Winkler, New St. Joseph Handbook for Proclaimers of the Word, Liturgical Year A, 2017 (New Jersey, Catholic Book Publishing Corp., 2016) at 75.
[4] John Shea, The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers: On Earth as it is in Heaven, Matthew, Year A (Collegeville, Liturgical Press, 2004) at 77.
[5] Winkler at 74.
[6] Fornieri at 24.

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