23 March 2022
Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
As a teacher of freshmen boys, I have learned firsthand how a clear set of rules and expectations—with consequences to enforce them—allows for freedom and learning within the classroom. If those rules and expectations are not enforced and obeyed, then chaos tends to ensue. Yet there are moments when a higher law supersedes the rules. For example, in the case of a student who, through no fault of his own, does not have his materials, it is better for me to supply him with what he needs than to punish him.
As Moses indicates in today’s first reading from Deuteronomy (4:1, 5–9), the ancient Israelites saw the law as a gift and as a sign of the Lord’s closeness to them. In the Gospel (Matt 5:17–19), Jesus proclaims that he has “come not to abolish but to fulfill” the law and the prophets, and that those who obey and teach the commandments “will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” These readings invite us to consider our own relationship to the commandments and the precepts of the Church. Do we allow them to structure and order our lives so as to be more open to the workings of grace? And do we remember that, as Saint Paul says, “love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom 13:10), so that we observe the precepts and commands not slavishly, but with “the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21)?