Wednesday of the Third Week in Lent
(Deuteronomy 4:1.5-9; Matthew 5:17-19)
Historians say that when Abraham Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address, he was quite conscious that he was rewriting the United States Constitution. That document, composed seventy-four years before, had considered the value of Black slaves as three-fifths that of free people. Lincoln reached back to the Declaration of Independence declaring all men (and, implicitly, women) equal. He had every intention of turning this proposition into law but died although he died before realizing it. But even the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments could not make Blacks equal in American society. Still we should see Lincoln’s efforts as a way of bringing the American promise to perfection something akin to what Jesus does to the Mosaic law.
The reading from Deuteronomy today expresses the virtue of the Law God gives to Moses. “Observe (its statutes and decrees) carefully,” Moses says, “for thus you will give evidence of your wisdom and intelligence to the nations…” However, the Law lacked an inner dynamism that would provide the people reason and strength to live perfectly. That force is the Holy Spirit which lurks in Jesus’ words on the Mount and is released definitively in his death and resurrection. Knowing the power of his Spirit, Jesus can say, “I have not come to abolish (the Law) but to fulfill (it).”
The Spirit fills our being with the love of God, that is, His love for us. We become partakers of God’s very life which enables us to love everyone, even our enemies. In the process we are made God’s heirs destined to share His happiness for eternity.
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