THE WORD IN LENT - 1st week, Saturday
March 07, 2020: Deuteronomy 26: 16-19; Matthew 5: 43-48
Point for Dialogue #9: What we are or What we are to be!
The first reading presents to us Moses the law giver and the covenant that he mediated between God and the people of Israel. In a parallel sense, the Gospel presents Jesus the new law giver and the covenant that he mediates between God and us.
The figure of Jesus as the new law giver is not in despite of the old law, but an invitation to perfection, a perfection that involves an endless journey of transcendence right upto realising within us the image and likeness of our Creator. That sets off within us a fundamental dialogue between what we are and what we are created and called to be. It is fundamental because, it is the very ground of our Christian existence.
In fact, it is a process of becoming conscious of our primary and original identity as children of God, an identity that makes us never satisfied of the perfection we have reached at any point of time - because the perfection of God is the goal that is presented to us by Jesus.
Arriving at that perfection is a life time task, a task that invites us to keep walking, to keep learning, not just to keep the law and fulfill its requirements but to keep loving persons without measure, like God who loves us so unconditionally. It is an invitation to understand that for a Christian, law is spelt L-O-V-E.
Let us engage in that continuous, daily dialogue, in everything we say, do or think - journeying towards that perfection of our God almighty, the perfection called Love.
Point for Dialogue #9: What we are or What we are to be!
The figure of Jesus as the new law giver is not in despite of the old law, but an invitation to perfection, a perfection that involves an endless journey of transcendence right upto realising within us the image and likeness of our Creator. That sets off within us a fundamental dialogue between what we are and what we are created and called to be. It is fundamental because, it is the very ground of our Christian existence.
In fact, it is a process of becoming conscious of our primary and original identity as children of God, an identity that makes us never satisfied of the perfection we have reached at any point of time - because the perfection of God is the goal that is presented to us by Jesus.
Arriving at that perfection is a life time task, a task that invites us to keep walking, to keep learning, not just to keep the law and fulfill its requirements but to keep loving persons without measure, like God who loves us so unconditionally. It is an invitation to understand that for a Christian, law is spelt L-O-V-E.
Let us engage in that continuous, daily dialogue, in everything we say, do or think - journeying towards that perfection of our God almighty, the perfection called Love.