Law

23rd Week in Ordinary Time - Monday (10 September 2018)

1 Corinthians 5:1-8

Luke 6:6-11

“Is it against the law on the sabbath to save life?” 

Isn’t it plain common sense to save life any day? Isn’t it plain common sense to do good any day (including the sabbath)? But we as humans could lose focus. When the very same rules and regulations which were meant for doing good, hinder us to do good, then they need to be broken. Our obedience and allegiance to God is first, and only then comes obedience to humans and to groups and institutions. When God’s plan is contrary to our own family’s or group’s interests, we have the duty to disobey humans, and accept God’s designs.

We belong to God, we are created in His image and likeness. We are God’s Beloved. This is primary. Therefore, our belonging to God is more important than belonging to a group. To know that we are His loved ones, that we belong to Him is primary. Only then we belong to a human organization or group: our own society, culture, tribe, church, association, club, etc. Boundaries, structures and human organizations are important, the identities born out of human oneness and communion are significant; but nothing is absolute except God. No structure is absolute, no group is absolute. Only God is absolute. Making anything else absolute besides God is called idolatry.

Following Jesus frees us from the complications of the law. It is really consoling to experience the freedom that we as Jesus’ followers will have in the face of such regulations, when there is the opportunity to do good for people or save a life.

St Paul’s letters to the Romans and Galatians are sophisticated studies of the meaning, purpose and limitations of the law. Laws can only give us information, and even helpful information, but they cannot give us transformation. Being good in the eyes of law is less important than being God’s instrument of goodness in this world. Is all our focus on being a good girl or a good boy in the eyes of human beings? Do we spend all our energies in pleasing humans than pleasing God? To stand for truth and principles might also mean standing against your own family or church or institution. To stand for God might also mean sometimes breaking the law of your own tradition or church or culture. Who is important to you: God or humans? God or human groups?

Laws and rules are not an end in themselves, they are merely means. If we want to enjoy the freedom that Christ gives, then our focus must be God: who guides us, leads us, transforms us, and who makes us love all: friends and foes alike. Henri Nouwen beautifully puts it, “You have to keep going back to the source: God’s love for you. Try to give your agenda to God. Give every part of your heart and your time to God and let God tell you what to do, where to go, when and how to respond.”