Today we celebrate the memorial for St. Barnabas. Recall that Barnabas was the delegate chosen by the Jerusalem Christians to go check out the former persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, after he was converted to Christianity on the Road to Damascus. Barnabas found Saul, now Paul, a charismatic convert eager to convert not only Jews but also gentiles. Barnabas accompanied Paul on his sanctioned First Missionary Journey to Cyprus and Asia Minor.
All that being said, I am choosing to reflect on the feria readings rather than the memorial readings on this Ordinary Time Year I—Week 10 Wednesday.
In today’s first reading (2 Corinthians 3:4-11), Paul continues his defense of his credentials to the Christian community in Corinth. Earlier, Paul asserts that the Corinthians “are his letter of commendation, written on their own hearts, known and read by all.” Paul does not take credit for their conversion, or even his own, but he credits God: “He is the one who has given us the qualifications to be the administrators of this new covenant.” Paul has not appointed himself. It is God, in Jesus, who has called him. The “new covenant” is not a written law but is one of the Spirit and the Corinthians themselves are its witnesses. Written documents, Paul says, “bring death, but the Spirit gives life.”
The term ‘new covenant’ was described by Jeremiah: “The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant, and I had to show myself their master, says the Lord. This is the covenant I will make…after those days I will place my law within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jeremiah 31:31-33).
The Old Law, the Law of Moses, was a complex set of rules defining what things must be done, but even more, what things that must not be done. Paul acknowledges the brightness that came from God giving the Law on Mt. Sinai, a brightness reflected in the face of Moses as he descended from the mountain. How much brighter is the glow of Christians, basking in the light of the Spirit in the New Covenant.
Paul goes on to shock his readers by saying that the Old Law, carved on tablets of stone, was a “ministry of death”. If there was any splendor in administering a law of condemnation, there must be very much greater splendor in administering a law of justification. This is the difference between the Old Law and the Spirit. The law tends to bring judgement on people, but the Spirit gives life and renewal. The law points out the limits for people’s behavior – ‘Don’t do this’, ‘Don’t do that’. The Spirit calls forward to a much deeper level of living. This is clearly seen in the differences between the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes. Jesus said that he had not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. In doing so, he simply left it behind. The Law, which seemed such a great thing at the time, has now been surpassed by a far more inspirational vision.
It is that Spirit that Paul wants the Corinthians to experience, rather than go back to the old days of blindly following a legalistic system, whose observance was often measured by what could be seen externally. The Law leads to rigidity and stagnation, the Spirit to spontaneity and creativity.
What Paul said then is equally true for us now. There is a certain tempting security in following a set of do’s and don’ts that some people are tempted to follow, but it leads ultimately to stagnation, and often to a not very attractive self-righteousness. It is the Spirit that gives life and brings people together in love, unity, and harmony. That is the only way that the Kingdom can be built.
We have said that Matthew’s gospel is primarily directed at a readership with a Jewish background, as was the readership of Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians. Jewish traditions were not easy for Christian converts to give up. Both Paul and Matthew go out of their way to assure Jewish converts that Christianity is not a rejection of Judaism but is its natural development. It is everything that Judaism is and more.
So, in today’s passage (Matthew 5:17-19), which continues the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus solemnly assures his readers, “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.” In a very rough simile, Jesus is like a successful upgrade of a computer’s operating system. It is still the same computer doing the same things, only better. The vision of Jesus helps us to see the Law in a new light.
Jesus tells us that the Law is still to be observed. We will clearly see in the next few days exactly what Jesus means by that. He is not saying that every single injunction of the Law (some of which seem very strange to us) must be literally observed, but rather that the spirit behind those injunctions is still in force. His words are meant to console, but they also are a challenge, as we shall see. The New Law does not simply mean the addition of new elements. The New Law is a paradigm shift to a Way that goes beyond the Old Testament laws to the new Law of Love.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!