Recently the Living Word selections for daily Mass have dealt with temporal (church/temple and even civil) laws and God's Law, the Law of Love. As to love, I love this selection from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans (4:13, 16-18, 22).
"Brothers and sisters: It was not through the law that the promise was made to Abraham and his descendants that he would inherit the world, but through the righteousness that comes from faith.
"For this reason, it depends on faith, so that it may be a gift, and the promise may be guaranteed to all his descendants, not to those who only adhere to the law but to those who follow the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us, as it is written, 'I have made you father of many nations.' He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into being what does not exist.
"He believed, hoping against hope, that he would become 'the father of many nations,' according to what was said, 'Thus your descendants be.'
"That is why 'it was credited to him as righteousness."
Then there were the words of Jesus in yesterday's Gospel of Matthew 5:17-19 in which Jesus teaches the following (famously, to many over the centuries).
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
"Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place.
"Therefore, whoever breaks on of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven"
What I find both thrilling and fascinating is that Jesus, while speaking to His disciples in this instance, circumvents riling the Jewish high priests, scribes, Pharisees and Sadducees who sought any reason in action or word from Jesus to arrest him, to kill him. Jesus tamed the reality of what He was to say next by telling them to not think He came to abolish the law or the prophets. He then said, as a repeat plus an "instead", that He came not to abolish but to fulfill.of Heaven. By saying not even the least letter of the law will be removed while the temporal exists (and this, of course, will affect those while on earth who think in terms of temporal), Jesus is reassuring that which is known and secure in the habits and ways of humankind.
But Jesus goes on to abjure us through what He says to His disciples, that He is speaking of God's law, and of the Ten Commandments as well as what Jesus has been teaching of which all comes under the umbrella of God's Law of Love. God's greatest commandment which fulfills all others: Love God above all else and love others as God loves [love as God loves all of us--ourselves and others].
While Jesus speaks in terms that the temporal mind finds reassuring, His meaning is of the spiritual realm, of God, of the Holy Spirit, of Himself the Christ, Messiah, Son of God, God made Man. God Is Love fulfills the law. When in faith we grasp we are in His Real Presence and He in us, we participate in the fulfillment of the law. When we think, speak, and act in love as God loves--love of souls, a real and active spiritual love--that in Him we enact in and upon the temporal as well as the spiritual of God's creation, we participate in Christ's fulfillment of the law of God which then supersedes the Ten Commandments and more so the temporal laws made by humankind.
Consider what it is to "fulfill." When one fulfills such as a temporal law of any kind, or to fulfill a rule, that law or rule is made void, in essence. Already fulfilled makes that law or rule unnecessary. Jesus reduces any potential misunderstanding or tension by saying He has not come to abolish. That puts all at ease who are used to so many laws and rules that we humans create for this, that, and all else, including for religious beliefs and behaviors. Jesus says He has not come to abolish the laws that humans depend upon due to being tangible and temporal--comfortable to temporal perceptions and mindsets. Yet Jesus is speaking of much more, of God's Law of Love and of the specific commandments given to us, as well.
But to fulfill is to bring to completion, to carry out and achieve what is expected or pledge, or required.
Jesus as Son of God, One in Three Persons of the Holy Trinity, is focused on the spiritual, the holy, the law of God, His Law of Love and of the prophet, that of the Ten Commandments. While Jesus is in temporal body and amidst the temporal world, He is of the Kingdom
But in simpler expression, even if we consider aspiring to, practicing living God's Law of Love in practical ways in everyday temporal life, we are showing and teaching others this Law of Love. But when we get in the way of God's Law of Love, or busy ourselves with laws that are not His, or cause others to not realize or grasp God's Law of Love, Jesus makes clear that we will be least and last in God's Kingdom, His spiritual kingdom. And in practical sense, we cause hardships, hindrance, and harm to God's Creation in the world and all in it. We undermine the spiritual of others; we hinder their progression in temporal and spiritual good, in holiness.
I've noticed in myself many ways in which I frustrate or go against Christ having fulfilled the law. Besides temptation to distract myself with laws and rules of humankind, if I'd achieve embracing and living God's Law of Love, I can be in union with Christ's fulfilling the law. God's Law of Love truly does negate the need for our various humankind created laws of this or that. Not that I would stop cooperating, but from actually being in and living God's Law of Love, all else will be accomplished with ease--even in figuring and paying the federal and state taxes! When one loves God above all else and loves one another as God loves, we find cooperating on earth a righteous. act, a spiritual good, a praise of God's glory.
I'm really giving this more attention, noticing in what way Jesus fulfilled and thus did not need to abolish. I'm putting into thought and action, striving to cooperate with His Real Presence in loving, in learning to love as God loves, which with people very much is to begin by loving their souls, for God loves all souls, and then to desire with all my mind, heart, and soul that their (and my) souls are His now and for all eternity.
God bless His Real Presence in us!
Love in His Love!
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