March 22, 2017
Wednesday, 3rd
Week of Lent
1st Reading: Dt 4:1, 5–9
Gospel: Mt 5:17–19
Jesus said to his disciples, “Do not think that I have come to remove the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to remove but to fulfill them. I tell you this: as long as heaven and earth last, not the smallest letter or stroke of the Law will change until all is fulfilled.
“So then, whoever breaks the least important of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be the least in the kingdom of heaven. On the other hand, whoever obeys them and teaches others to do the same will be great in the kingdom of heaven.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
The Pharisees and other Jewish leaders imposed upon the people so many laws to ensure compliance of the Law of Moses. This meticulous observance of the Law saddled heavy burden upon the shoulders of the people who were already under so much political pressure from the Romans. Then Jesus came.
When the people observed Jesus violate the strict and burdensome Sabbath law, they thought they finally had the hot-blooded rebel driven by the passion to go against the political tide. To their surprise, however, Jesus issued this confusing pronouncement: “Do not think that I have come to remove the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to remove but to fulfill them. I tell you this: as long as heaven and earth last, not the smallest letter or stroke of the Law will change until all is fulfilled.”
Was Jesus no different from the Pharisees and other religious leaders who were imposing on the people their onerous interpretations of the Law? Definitely he was different from all of them. The Pharisees were advocates of the literal interpretation of the Law, while Jesus was for the liberation of the Law’s life-giving spirit from “the letter that kills”. He himself was observant of the Law of Moses. In so submitting himself to the Law, he liberated all from the yoke of the Law. In the words of St. Paul: “God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as sons” (Galatians 4:4).
Among us today the Pharisees are alive in those who advocate the literal interpretation of the Bible. Consider how heavy a burden they impose upon their followers. Would any of them do the same by plucking their eyes should these lead them to sin in literal compliance of Matthew 18:9? We cannot promote the literal interpretation of the Bible, for God is never inclined to condemn us to the literal interpretation of his Word. “For the letter kills,” St. Paul wrote, “but the spirit gives life.”(2 Cor. 3:6). – (Atty.) Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., D.M.
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