The Law of Moses – the Torah – there are not just the Ten Commandments - according to the rabbinic tradition, there are 613 total commandments in the Torah –365 rules saying “thou shall not” – saying what one must not do - 248 stating that “though shall” – saying what one must do. – And as we hear in Sirach – “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;.”
But that is a lot of rules – and they can be challenging – and seemingly impossible – Consider the Old Testament and see how well the Israelite’s managed to follow the Torah – they failed again and again and again –not trusting God - rebelling against God – falling into idolatry again, and again, and again - how is someone to follow these rules? – No human person has the ability to successfully fulfill the Law – the demands of the Torah seem beyond us. – They are impossible by fallen human nature.
But Christ has come - in Christ, what is our relation to these commands of the Torah? One line of thought, typical in some evangelical protestant circles, is that we can’t follow them and do not have to – For Christ came to free us from the Law – that perhaps we do not need to worry about the Law or follow the Law for it is a result of sin and Christ defeated sin – We cannot follow the Law, so Christ has come, and by his death and resurrection free us, this thought thinks that the Law no longer binds - The rule seems to be no longer a concern.
This seems to be a clean, easy way to deal with a list of rules we cannot keep – They simply go away - but not one that Jesus subscribes to. – “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” – Jesus does not give an easy way out – for he does not remove the Law – “whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments …will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” – Christ amplifies the Law.
No longer is it only merely, “You shall not kill” – but also “whoever is angry with his brother” not just “You shall not commit adultery” but also that “everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” – Jesus did not come to remove the Law – but to bring it to its fullness – perfection – There is no easy way around the Law. – For it calls to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect – But how are we to relate to it?
The Pharisees tried to follow the Law by adding new rules to keep them from accidentally breaking a rule – yet it still left them short – “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” – There is no one will enter the kingdom if we need to follow by our strength.
We cannot do it – yet the Law must be fulfilled – where is our salvation? – the answer is in Christ – he did not remove the Law, there is no way around it, for the Law points to the good – to God, to perfection – nothing contrary and enter the kingdom – Christ did not abolish the Law – but he did make a way through it. – For he came to fulfill the Law – and he has fulfilled by his life, death, resurrection, and ascension. And we can fulfill it as well if we live in Christ – and Christ in us. - “If you trust in God, you too shall live.”
In baptism, we are baptized into Christ’s death so that we might rise with him in the ressurection. In confession, we bring where we have failed to Christ, receiving absolution, reconciling us to Christ and his Church. - In the Mass, “we celebrate the memorial of the saving Passion of your Son, his wondrous Resurrection and Ascension into heaven.” – and we receive at communion Christ, body, blood, soul, and divinity. How are we to fulfill the Law perfectly? Not by our strength and our power, but by living in Christ and letting Christ live in us – uniting to Christ, the one who has fulfilled the Law. We cannot fulfill the Law – but we must go through it – it must be fulfilled– something only possible in Christ.
We do this through the sacraments - through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving – something that is a focus during Lent, which is just around the corner, a week and a half away – Ash Wednesday is February 22 – There are all sorts of rules during Lent rules for fasting – there abstinence from meat on Friday – There is are penance services, stations of the cross – All of the things the parish is doing or Lent should be in the bulletin – Through lent the importance of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving is rightfully stressed – and it is time to consider what one’s plan for Lent is.
There are some everyday things to give up – no sweets – or perhaps no alcohol – no social media – no TV, or perhaps more apt today, no Netflix. These can all be good – but there is a danger in them – that Lent becomes a self-improvement plan – trying to fulfill the Law by our strength as the Pharisees did. But that does not pull us closer to Christ; through whom the Law is fulfilled – Lent may have many rules to guide and help us, but it is not about the rules and regulations - The goal of Lent is to draw closer to Christ – his passion and death – that we will also be with him in his resurrection and ascension – fulfilling the Law
As we prepare for Lent – consider how, in prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, we might draw closer to Christ – Maybe some of the common ones, such as making time for prayer by avoiding TV. But also perhaps considering how in Christ we fulfill the Law, maybe thinking back to the gospel at Mass two weeks ago – the beatitudes – what do they say we should be for the kingdom of heaven – are we those in Christ- whatever the plan – the question of the Law brings the question how to satisfy it –and so we pray that we might live in Christ, and Christ in us – for we cannot fulfill the Law ourselves – but Christ can – and in fact, already has.