To Fulfill

Sixth Sunday of OrdinaryTime 2014 A

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.  Sirach 15:15-16

We speak God’s wisdom.  1 Corinthians 2:7a

I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.  Matthew 5:17b

Piety

The gradual change of why we do things happens as we grow in age and wisdom.  The law of the Lord begins in our hearts.  It is the wisdom of the ages that allows us to see the difference between good and evil.  Happiness flows out of the doing good.  The commandments of the Lord are the introduction to the plan of God.  We are called into God’s life and the commandments are an expression of what we must do to have his life.  Christ is the human expression of what is the right way to do something.  The commandments are the eternal expression of the right way to live.  By God’s sharing his life with us, he gives us the wherewithal to love each other as he has loved us.

Study

We study the commandments of God because they will save us.  We realize that happiness comes from living the good life with all the people of our life.  We study how to love each other in the realization that the challenge of life is love one another even as Christ has loved us.  We know that we are blessed when we walk in the love of the Lord.  We study how the coming of Christ fulfills the law.  He came that we might have life and have it more fully.

Action

We walk in the footprints of the Lord.  He is the perfect leader because he has gone first and we need but follow.  The Lord sees our hearts and what we intend to do. He judges us by our intentions, not so much our performance.  He reveals to us in the depths of our hearts what we should be doing.  He sends into our lives the challenge of the good people of our lives.  We do as they do to make our world the expression of the God of love by the way we offer our lives for one another.  We know we are called to love the people we see that we can truly say we love the God we do not see.  Like it or not we are called to preach by our actions more than our words.  The law of the Lord is the secret of happiness and if we did not have the revelation of Gods law we would have needed to invent the commandments if we wanted to be happy.