I have come not to abolish but to fulfill - Mt 5:17-19
In March 1937, Pope Pius XI issued the Encyclical Letter “Mit Brennender Sorge” (With Burning Concern) condemning the Nazi system. Protesting against various manifestations of Nazi totalitarianism, trampling on human dignity, limiting parents' rights to raise children. Pius XI also demanded respect for the Old Testament, insulted by the Nazis on the wave of increasing anti-Semitism. "Nothing but ignorance and pride - I quote the Pope - now could blind one to the treasures hoarded in the Old Testament. Whoever wishes to see banished from church and school the Biblical history and the wise doctrines of the Old Testament, blasphemes the name of God, blasphemes the Almighty's plan of salvation, and makes limited and narrow human thought the judge of God's designs over the history of the world: he denies his faith in the true Christ, such as He appeared in the flesh”.
The Old and New Testaments are like two wheels of one bicycle. If someone closes himself to the New Testament, the news of Christ the Savior will not come to him. And if someone does not appreciate the Old Testament, his faith in Christ will not be authentic, because the Old Testament presents the history of God's love, which prepared people for the coming of the Savior.
But for this very reason, we can only fully understand the Old Testament through faith in Christ. Just as Christ the Lord himself explained to the disciples of Emmaus the successive events of the Old Testament prophecy, same way also we will understand the Old Testament only then when we try to read it with the eyes of the Lord Jesus. Origen, the great theologian of the third century, was able to present this with wonderful pictures. For example, he said that when we read the Old Testament, Christ the Lord wants to repeat the miracle at Cana in Galilee. Until the light of Christ the Lord illuminates it, the Old Testament is like water gathered in jars. Only when Christ the Lord touches it, the Old Testament turns into a wonderful wine, intoxicating with the Holy Spirit.
If we had not shed the light of Christ on our reading of the Old Testament - Origen presents the same thought in a different image - it would be as if we wanted to eat the paschal lamb raw. Only when the Old Testament is "baked" in the fire of the Holy Spirit does it discover its full flavor. Most of the difficulties raised by the Old Testament would disappear if we adhered to these rules as established by the Church Fathers. After all, Christ the Lord not only recognized the Old Testament, but most of all fulfilled it.
In fact, the Law and the Prophets of the Old Testament foreshadowed the Messiah, and Jesus fulfilled it. But he also fulfilled it in a different sense: he filled it with love. Often people are offended by some fragments of the Old Testament – it does not show God as we know Him from the Gospels. And no wonder, since the Old Testament is not fulfilled. It is only fulfilled by the New Testament, especially the Gospel.
All this tells us that God reveals himself to man gradually. Therefore, the journey of knowing God can never be stopped. He reveals Himself to each of us gradually, as if in fragments. We will know Him fully in Heaven, because then He Himself will fill us to the end.
Until Tomorrow
fr. george