THE COMPLETION OF THE LAW AND THE PROPHETS

WEDNESDAY, THIRD WEEK OF LENT

Deut 4:1,5-9; Ps 147:12-13,15-16,19-20; Mt 5:17-19

The Law and Prophets leading to the Promised Land

Yahweh prepared the children of Israel through their afflictions in the land of Egypt, which happened according to his foreknowledge and divine plan. He thereby purified them to receive his self-communication and establish communion with them. As we stated earlier, the revelation of the sacred name of God to Moses was an invitation to divine communion and covenant. The God who introduced himself to Moses as ‘I Am who I Am’ is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. By giving them this alternative identification, God established communion with them on the tradition formed by his interaction with their forefathers. The tradition promotes a shared consciousness and faithfulness to his word and communion arising from God’s self-communication. The laws given to them at Sinai enriched the revelation of the sacred name by defining the character of the God they are to worship. The revelation of the laws of God equips them to enter communion with God and reform their lives to be like God’s. Therefore, Moses said to them: “Now, Israel, take notice of the laws and customs that I teach you today, and observe them, that you may have life and may enter and take possession of the land that the Lord the God of your fathers is giving you.” The laws relate to the God who revealed his name to them and enabled them to take possession of the Promised Land.

The land of Canaan is a sacrament of the spiritual Promised Land, which we have understood to be communion with God himself. In the material or sacramental sense of the Promised Land, it refers to the land of Canaan given to the people of Israel. But the spiritual understanding of the Promised Land refers to the life of communion with God through faith in his word. In this spiritual sense, the promise applies to every person God created. Since the path to entering the Promised Land is the keeping of the laws of God, it is a spiritual path that is open to everyone. Thus, Moses’ warning applies to us who have heard or read of these great things, though we did not see them. “But take care what you do and be on your guard. Do not forget the things your eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your heart all the days of your life; rather, tell them to your children and to your children’s children.” Contemplating the revealed sacred name of God and meditating on his laws set us on the path to communion with the living God. Familiarity with the path to divine communion makes us share it with our children. The spiritual path is within and before us to walk into divine communion and possess the Promised Land. It is of this spiritual Promised Land that the psalm refers to as fortified by the word of God. “O praise the Lord, Jerusalem! Zion, praise your God! He has strengthened the bars of your gates he has blessed the children within you.”

The Incarnation of the Eternal Word, his life as the Son of Man, death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven have confirmed the salvation history of man as revealed. We now understand the revelation of God as a continuous trajectory of God’s self-outpouring to us for our eternal salvation. Our Lord demands us to understand the revelation as a whole, as he states in the gospel. “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them. I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.” In addition to the purpose of enlightenment of our minds on the nature of God and the human nature made in the image of God, the Law and the Prophets act as a gate or barrier to keep off whatever is not of God or leads to God in us from gaining entrance to the communion with God or the Promised Land. In this sense, the word of God strengthens the bars of the gates of the spiritual Jerusalem. The Law and the Prophet prevent unregenerated human nature and foreign spirits, not in communion with the Holy Spirit, from entering the City of God. One who breaks the Law has little or no share in the Holy Spirit. “Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Let us pray: Grant, we pray, O Lord, that, schooled through Lenten observance and nourished by your word, through holy restraint we may be devoted to you with all our heart and be ever united in prayer. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.