Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time / Msgr. Owen F. Campion
The Sunday Readings
The first reading for Mass this weekend is from the Book of Leviticus. It is one of the five books of the Pentateuch, the Torah, the basic revelation by God to the chosen people.
This reading reports a day when God spoke to Moses. “I the Lord, your God, am holy,” says God. He continues that no one must hate another, using the term “brother” as if to emphasize the point (Lv 12:2, 17).
The reading sets the stage for the message from St. Matthew’s Gospel that will follow as the third reading.
St. Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians provides the second reading. A favorite image employed by Paul throughout his writings was that, through faith and in baptism, Christians literally bond with Christ. In Christ, they become heirs to eternal life. In Christ, they receive the Holy Spirit, bringing into their very being divine grace and strength.
Having made this point in today’s reading, the Apostle continues, reminding Corinthian Christians that they are not supremely wise. They may be wise in a worldly sense, and often genuine wisdom comes across as foolishness to the worldly. It was good counsel. Corinth was immersed in the pagan culture of the Roman Empire. Everything extolled the majesty of Rome. Its culture had created the legal system that brought order to human society, a system that still lives, being the basis of law in Western civilization to this day. But it was not just!
The wonders of Roman architecture and art reaffirmed the depth and greatness of human wisdom in the empire.
Against this backdrop of the splendor of all things Roman and pagan, Paul tells the Corinthians that there is much more.
St. Matthew’s Gospel furnishes the last reading. The context is the Sermon on the Mount, as Christians long ago came to call this section of the Gospel.
In the background is the Jewish preoccupation with keeping God’s law. In the covenant, so basic to Judaism, God called the Jews to obedience. By obeying divine law, they would indeed be God’s people and God would protect and bless them.
Here, in this reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel, the Lord sets forth a series of contrasts. He
gave a basis for obeying the law, separating a truly Christian response to the law, which is love for God and others, from a series of maxims and rules.
Reflection
God revealed to us his divine law. It is no set of rules for the sake of rules. Rather it is the blueprint by which we can live, more fully resembling with the help of God’s grace the perfection and love that dwell in the Holy Trinity. So, the law of God is vitally important.
In each of the statements of Jesus recorded in this reading from St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus drew a significant comparison. Realizing that God’s law, as revealed to Moses, is of God and cannot be abridged or cancelled, the Lord did not discount the revered law or belittle it.
Rather, these words illustrate the fact that the Lord fulfilled it. What does this mean? Observing God’s law does not mean simply going through motions, as meaningful as the results may be. More profoundly, it means obeying God because of one’s trust in and love for him.
God is love, and at the root of his law is love. God lovingly revealed his law to us for our benefit. If we respond because of our love for God, to be with God, then we obey fittingly. Our obedience assumes a wonderfully higher personal meaning.
The reading finally confirms the identity of the Lord. God gave the law. Only God, as lawgiver, can correctly interpret the law. Jesus acted in a uniquely divine role by answering questions about the law. He is God. †