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.
