Homily for Tuesday, 14 October 2014– Ferial

Tuesday of the 28th week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Galatians 5:1-6; Psalm 119:41, 43, 44, 45, 47, 48; Luke 11:37-41

Is anybody here confused as to the seemingly inconsistent attitudes to the law (specifically Jewish Law or the Law of Moses) in our readings today?

Our Responsorial Psalm is drawn from Psalm 119, a magnificent song of praise for God’s Law given to the Jewish people and also handed on to us Christians. “I will keep your law continually,” we hear, “I will lift up my hands to your commands and meditate on your statutes.”

St. Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, and Jesus, in Luke’s Gospel, are less admiring of the Law. “If you have yourselves circumcised,” St. Paul says, “Christ will be of no benefit to you.” Jesus criticizes the Pharisee at dinner with him for “observing the prescribed washing before the meal” and other legal rituals but not living by the spirit of the Law. “Inside you are filled with plunder and evil,” Jesus says to the Pharisee. I can imagine that Jesus’ evening at the Pharisee’s house did not last much longer after Jesus’ harsh words.

Why, though, do we hear this apparent inconsistency between our Psalm on one hand and our first reading and Gospel reading on the other?

I invite us to be cautious not to read into Galatians or Luke’s Gospel that St. Paul or Jesus considered the Jewish law, the Law of Moses, to be no longer important in light of Jesus Christ; that the teaching of Jesus and Apostles like St. Paul had taken over the significance of the now-abolished Jewish law. Neither Jesus nor St. Paul say that the Jewish Law is insignificant or has been superseded by Jesus’ own teaching. After all, both Jesus and St. Paul were Jews, obedient to the spirit of the Law of Moses.

The Law, whether the Law of Moses or the laws and rituals of our own Catholic Church, are to be respected and obeyed insofar as they lead us closer to God; insofar as they free us for love of one another and for God. This is the kind of obedience for the Law reflected today in the words of St. Paul, of our Psalm, and of Jesus alike.

For St. Paul, circumcision versus non-circumcision is a non-issue; this is a controversy manufactured by the Galatians whom he corrects. For Jesus, the ritual washing of vessels or not in and of itself is unimportant. Both St. Paul and Jesus ask the question: How do our legal and ritual observances lead us to God; lead us to act in a God-like manner, or not? If not, both circumcision and non-circumcision become empty gestures. On the one hand, is it not possible to wash the vessels ritually but “inside” one’s heart be “filled with plunder and evil”? Is it not possible to follow laws to the letter and yet be ungodly; lacking in love?

If we observe laws, religious or otherwise, in a Godly, loving spirit, then by all means let us join in the praise of the Psalmist for God and God’s Law: “I will keep your law continually… lift up my hands to your commands and meditate on your statutes.”