Reflection for Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
Laws, laws, laws, laws! No one likes laws, and fewer people like to follow them. Yet laws give a balance and an order to society, and also to life. The laws of the Church give us a means to enter into relationship with God.
In Deuteronomy, we hear Moses speak eloquently on God’s closeness to His Chosen People. “What nation has gods so close to it, as the Lord, our God, is to us whenever we call out to Him…?” This closeness to God is made tangible to the Israelites in the establishment of their laws. For them, the law isn’t just a set of rules and regulations. The law the Lord gave them in the Torah gave them a sense of identity as a free people. They had lived under the unjust rule of the Egyptians and the lawlessness of nomadic life. The Ten Commandments and the Mosaic Law gave the people of Israel the stability and liberty they were longing for.
We, as Christians, share in this law by extension. We can gain true freedom by following the law instituted by Jesus. It is our spiritual freedom. We need not let even “the smallest letter” fall away from this because it frees us. If we ignore even “the smallest part” of Church discipline willingly, we lose some of our spiritual freedom.
With that in mind and with God’s love in our hearts, let us strive to follow more faithfully the “the perfect law of liberty.” Indeed, “the one who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts,” (Jas. 1.25) will be blessed in all that they do.
Reflection by Br. Matthew Marie, OSB
Posted in Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources