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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