Thursday of the
Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
(Jeremiah 31:31-34; Matthew 16:13-23)
One of the greatest insights of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae is contained in an
article that refers to the first reading today. Near the end of the Prima Sacundae Thomas turns his attention from the Old Law to the
New Law. He makes no fanfare as he
treats of this entirely different kind of law, which is to the Old Law what a
computer is to a typewriter.
Thomas says that the New Law fulfills the prophecy of
Jeremiah that says it will be written on the hearts of God’s people. He understands this law to be not merely a
list of rules or even a series of stories that illustrate righteousness. No, for Thomas and henceforth for the
Catholic tradition the New Law is nothing less than the grace of the Holy
Spirit that fills the hearts of those who believe in Jesus. It is as if the heart were given an entirely
new shape, now designed to love as the old form was designed to seek personal
satisfaction.
We express our belief in Jesus not just by testifying, as
Peter does in today’s gospel that he is “the Christ, the Son of the living God,”
but by following his commands. For Christians
orthopraxis is as important as orthodoxy.
But the challenge is not all that overwhelming because the grace of his Spirit
is moving us to do so from within.
