Law and Life

Scripture Reflection for the TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (August 30, 2015)

Scripture Readings:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2; 6-8
Psalm 15:2-3, 3-4, 4-5
James 1:17-18; 21b-22; 27
Mark 7:1-8; 14-15; 21-23

There are two ways of understanding the function of law in our lives. One way is what we might call a “legalistic” approach. In this approach, we keep the law because it is the LAW. It might not make any sense, it might constrain our freedom, we may not like doing it, but if we live according to the law—live according to certain rules—we will be safe, or, in the case of religion, we will be saved. The idea is that keeping the law gives us a number of points—like Frequent Flyer miles—and so eventually we earn enough points to earn or buy our well being, or at least avoid punishment. The reason I don’t go through red lights, for example, or text while driving, is because of the consequences. If I got caught—by a state trooper or a stoplight camera—I would be fined, or even go to jail. The reason I go to Mass every week, or don’t tell lies is that God sees everything and I’ll pay for it some day if I don’t do what God has determined.

The other approach to law is that is a helpful guide to living a full and fulfilling life. In this understanding, law is a gift, a pattern that, if we conform our lives to it, will shape us, direct us, and ultimately free us to be ourselves. Keeping the law actually humanizes us. Without the structure that the law gives us, we realize, it would be hard, maybe even impossible to develop into fully human persons, and so, even though keeping the law is hard sometimes, or maybe inconvenient, we are grateful for it. Sure, if I don’t stop at red lights or text while driving I won’t ever get caught doing it, but I realize that for the sake of the common good these laws are really helpful and important. The reason I go to Mass regularly or try to live an honest life is because these laws shape me into a loving, caring, responsible human being who is grateful for God’s love in my life. In religion, law is something that helps me in my relation with God in Jesus. Keeping it actually opens me to the Spirit.

It’s this second, life-giving understanding of law that pervades today’s scripture readings. In our first reading from Deuteronomy, maybe the key word in the whole reading is right at the beginning: hear the statutes and decrees that I’m teaching you, Moses says, that you may live. This is not just about staying alive. This is about flourishing, becoming what God has called us to be. Yes, Moses says that these laws should be kept strictly, but it’s because of their deep wisdom, their life-giving quality, their way of helping us in our relation to God. If Israel keeps these laws, not only will they flourish, they will show the world what it means to be human, as covenant partners with a loving God.

This is the point of the responsorial psalm as well, and also the second reading from the letter of James. What it means to be human—to live in the presence of the Lord—is to be one who tells the truth, respects others, does no harm to others, is generous and honest. James calls for action—not only hearing the word but actually doing it, and so caring for orphans and widows (in other words, the most vulnerable) and not being fooled by the allurements of the world. Keeping these laws does not earn us justice. Rather, it is because we have been given “birth by the word of truth” and are like the “firstfruits” of God’s creatures, that we keep them. Keeping the law is a response to God’s life-giving love, not a condition to earn it.

It's so easy to fall into the first understanding of keeping the law, however. Sadly, for all their genuine piety and real goodness, that’s what the members of the Pharisee party had done. They were scandalized at how seemingly lax Jesus’ disciples were about a number of customs that had begun to replace what was the real point of religion. Jesus did not mince words in setting them straight. These outward observances are really meaningless unless they are expressions of a deep, grateful, interior disposition. What makes us acceptable to God is not outward observances, but interior attitudes, attitudes that are responses to God’s gifts in our lives.

If you’re anything like me, you also fall often into the first understanding of trying to earn God’s love by keeping the law. If I make sure I don’t do this or that, or make sure that I actually do the things that God or the church or others tell me to do, I’ll earn God’s love, or at least avoid punishment either in this life or hereafter. What I often miss, though, what you will miss too, is that we already have God’s love. There is nothing we can do, actually, to convince God that we’re not worthy of it. God likes what God sees—after all God made us! But God has given us lots of precious advice in God’s laws: don’t be selfish, don’t be arrogant, don’t be a gossip, don’t take advantage of people, make sure you pray often, make sure your relationships are honest. These are the laws (summarized actually in the ten commandments) that, if we observe them, will give us life and make us rich human beings. They will help us cultivate that inner beauty and goodness that is the only thing that counts.

There’s an old saying that if you keep the law the law will keep you. If you understand the saying rightly, it’s really worth pondering. It’s that pondering to which the readings call us today.

Image: A couple of red traffic lights against a blue sky by Horia Varlan. Found on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.