Fulfilling the law is not obeying the law.
Fulfilling the law is not obeying the law - but getting to the Source.
By saying: " I have come not to abolish but to fulfill", the Lord Jesus shows us that the law is not fulfilled through a formalistic approach to life, but through participation in Love. Exploring this reality, Saint Augustine comes to the conviction that it is "Love that precedes the observance of the commandments". It is the source that gives meaning to our conduct and law. The law is dead without it. And the formal repetition of legalistically correct actions does not lead to opening the heart to God. Professor Józef Tischner clarifies: "The commandment is an essential expression of love. Only love understands the language of the commandments, and only love knows how to use it." Hence, the law is not a source, but a concrete expression of abiding in Love – the Source of the Commandments: " If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love." (Jn 15:10)
We also know that the opposite of righteousness, in relation to God, is sin. Sometimes people wonder if an action is a "light" or "grave" sin. Meanwhile, a love one or friend will not ask about it. In friendship there is no division into heavy, semi-heavy, light-medium, light and insignificant betrayals. After all, we can't imagine a friend saying to a friend: "don't be hysterical, I just lightly hit your face but I could have stabbed you in the back..." In the same way, being in friendship with God, we simply do not want to sin. At the same time, it does not matter to Love whether I am a sinner or not – Love always loves. Thus, the Lord Jesus fulfills the Law and the Prophets by restoring their spiritual significance.
And because He wants to lead us as quickly as possible to immeasurable happiness in Love, He chooses a very steep path. First, He refers to the greatest sin, which is murder. It has its origin in anger against one's neighbor. When the Lord Jesus taught the apostles the prayer "Our Father", the only passage he commented on concerned forgiveness. Today he develops this idea by ordering the cessation of prayers as ineffective when someone feels wronged by me. At the same time, he does not specify whether my neighbor was really treated unfairly by me or only thinks so. Regardless of the situation, I must first repair the relationship with him before I want to make contact with God. After all, my brother is part of his Mystical Body, Christ lives in him, he is Christ. (This is how the Lord Jesus addresses Saul near Damascus before he was transformed into Paul.) We know how hard it is to apologize, even when we were wrong.
Father Józef Tischner in "The Philosophy of Drama" compares our life to a great performance. We play our roles in it. In the audience sit saints and angels and God Himself. In this scene we seem to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus: "No more playing kindergarten". This is not about a momentary victory. Outside the sandbox, there is something more important, there is real world.
At the same time, entry into the Kingdom of Heaven does not depend on negotiations and the presentation of a list of merits. In love there is no trade. Christianity is not about "deserving" but about accepting Grace. Abiding in God is grace. The Lord Jesus wants to give us so much love and joy that we can finally stop concentrating on our wounds and be able to care for our brothers and sisters. A Christian is a man with such potential for love that he can forgive offenders. He reaches out to the offended unjustifiably. And all this to become more like a Friend. That Christ may live in him, Christ who gives himself for us, to the last drop of blood, when we are sinners, that is, his enemies.
Jesus goes on to draw our attention to the fact that sexuality is too beautiful and important a gift to be treated instrumentally. It is to lead us, as well as everything in our lives, to Unity with God. Therefore, he absolutely does not agree to break up the family, whether our own or someone else's. The sacrament of marriage is on earth a sign of Christ's love for the Church, we read in the Letter to the Ephesians (Eph 5:25). We often forget that the difficult love of spouses is a sacrament – a visible sign of God's presence on earth (as effective as baptism, confession, the Eucharist...).
Finally, the Lord Jesus invites us to live in existential truth. The Christian lives in the Truth and bears witness to the Truth. He does not need to swear, to "keep three fingers on his heart," for he is himself only when he is authentic. We usually swear when there is a fear that we are not credible. The Lord Jesus wants us to always be unambiguous.
Sometimes we hear that someone "snatched the truth" to someone. Edith Stein, St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, states: " Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love. And do not accept anything as love which lacks truth; One deprived of the other becomes a destructive lie." Truth without love kills, and pity without truth enslaves. Meanwhile, the Lord Jesus invites us to strive with all our might to be perfect, as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Thought from Saint Faustina: “Why are You sad today, Jesus? Tell me, who is the cause of Your sadness? And Jesus answered me.Chosen souls who do not have my spirit, who live according to the letter [cf. 2 Cor. 3:6] and have placed the letter above My spirit, above the spirit of love. I have founded My whole law on love, and yet I do not see love, even in religious orders. This is why sadness fills My Heart”. (Diary 1478)
Until Tomorrow
fr. george