We see laws mainly as a burden, and we are happy when the competent authority discounts something from the binding nature of the law – when the boss lets us out of work earlier and does not insist on eight hours of working time when the police exempt us from some traffic regulations; when the parliament repeals some law… We also transfer this attitude to the relationship with God’s law, proclaimed in Sinai and supplemented and deepened by Jesus Christ. A devout Catholic expressed it this way: „ After all, the Pope has full power to act in God’s name. So why doesn’t he break the sixth commandment, and we’d have an easier life…“
However, what would we look like if the parliament declared the law of earthly attraction and free fall abolished? Based on this, we could step out of the balcony on the tenth floor. If we did, we’d see that the law still applies inexorably… We know that specific laws go beyond the will of human authorities, and respect for those laws is in our interest. To the greatest extent, this applies to God’s laws for our lives. Moses announces them to the people as a gift from God, as a source of wisdom, as a certainty on which one can rely, and with the help of which one can develop a promising personal and national life.
Jesus had a critical attitude towards various regulations and ways invented by people. Some expected this would also change the requirements of God’s law. However, in the Gospel (Mt 5, 17-19 ), he declares that he did not come to cancel what God announced through Moses and the Prophets. The durability of these God-given guidelines is more excellent than the laws of physics: „ Until heaven and earth pass away, not a single letter or a single comma from the Law passes away until everything is fulfilled.“
He came to free us from a slavish approach to God’s law, which causes us to perceive and bear it as an inexorable burden without joy or willingness. His teaching shows us the inner logic of God’s law and his sense of our life and helps us to know the Lawgiver as a loving Father. He accepted on his shoulders not only all the commandments of the Ten Commandments but also the will of the heavenly Father, which concerned his mission, including the sacrifice of life for our salvation. With his attitude and actions, he shows us how to fulfill God’s law, but also that its fulfillment leads to inner freedom, is an expression of love for the Father and the greatest good for man, who observes it, as well as for the human community and the created world.
With his resurrection, Jesus proves that even if faithfulness to God and his law can sometimes require the highest sacrifice, it still leads to the victory of life and participation in God’s life. However, Jesus did not only provide a good example. At the cost of his death and resurrection, he received the gift of the Holy Spirit. He fills the hearts with those who believe in Jesus Christ with his love and filial trust in the heavenly Father. It leads us to fulfill what God asks of us with inner freedom and joy, and we do not feel it as a limitation or effort but as an expression of God’s caring love and as a path to our development and fullness of life. Therefore, St. Paul emphasized that Christ freed us from the law – not that he abolished the requirements of the law -but that he gifted us with the freedom of God’s children, and as such, we can obey God’s will with confidence under the guidance of the Spirit.
Practical instruction: Which commandment do I have the most difficulty with? I will ask for the help of the Holy Spirit and try to understand God’s intention with this commandment in depth – under the guidance of the Gospel, if necessary, and in conversation with the confessor to observe it with inner conviction.
Prayer: Merciful God, in this forty-day season of Lent, you nourish us with your word and lead us to spiritual renewal; we beg you, help us, that we may give ourselves entirely to you by penitential deeds and call on you together as our Father in brotherly love, through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who is God and lives and reigns with you in union with the Holy Spirit for all ages.
