Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary time

(II Corinthians 3:4-11; Matthew 5:17-19)

Schools today often encourage teachers and students to make contract agreements.  The agreements serve as a law so that all have a clear sense of their rights and responsibilities.  It is this literal sense of law that both the first reading and the gospel transcend.

St. Paul writes of a new covenant not written in stone but on the heart.  Christian recipients of this new covenant or law don’t sense it as an imposition of their freedom.  Rather they readily carry it out because it is natural to them.  In the gospel Jesus says that he comes to fulfill the law because he will dispense the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit will move its possessor beyond the give and take of contracts to sacrifice of self for the other.


The new law has been written on our hearts.  We have received the Holy Spirit.  Aware of this grace we should not hesitate to perform acts of love.  Doing so, we will share the company of the saints.