Friday 19 July 2024
Day of penance
Isaiah 38:1-6, 21-22, 7-8. You saved my life, O Lord, I shall not die – Isaiah 38:10-12, 16. Matthew 12:1-8.
The Law is lifeless if we ignore right relationships with God and others
We humans need conventions of behaviour that allow us to live in a manner that promotes the common good. In our scriptural tradition the importance of rules is expressed by the way that the conventions of Israel’s relationship with God, among its people and with outsiders are written down following an ongoing revelation from God. To break the Law, as expressed by God, is surely blasphemous. It threatens everything.
Yet, as Jesus shows, to live the Law without regard to the undergirding relationships, without seeking to relate to God’s desire for his people, is to miss the essential. The Law is a means of growing relationship with God. Now in Jesus there is a new way to approaching that relationship, through the God-Man. For the Christian, the Law must be lived through this new grounding reality, or it is a lifeless impediment.
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