Moral Code or Spiritual Integrity?

WORD 2day: Friday, 4th week in Ordinary time 

February 5, 2021: Hebrews 13: 1-8; Mark 6:14-29

Is following a moral code enough to be a Christian? Moral codes are temporal and spatial- that is, what is wrong at one time may not be so at another time; what is right in a place may not be so elsewhere! Isn't it true? Killing a cow may be a disputed thing in India (though merely for a small group, not even the majority!), but elsewhere that is one of the major part of the regular diet! Once capital punishment was tolerated by the Church teaching as an extreme measure towards maintaining peace and justice, but today the Catechism of the Catholic Church does not even consider it a possible measure! These are natural and normal evolutions and diversities of reality. But there is a question that arises from here.

If all of us are formed from, and moving towards, the same Divine Being, then can our life style be so subjective? That is why Jesus always stood by Spiritual Integrity rather than a set of moral precepts. Integrity contains within it not only all dimensions of life, but even time, space, geography and history! It never changes, for it is associated to the One Eternal Being, who is the fullness of all that is good, God.

Jesus is same, yesterday, today and tomorrow! No time can change what Jesus stood for. The letter to the Hebrews presents to us a set of values which are not merely moral codes but are frameworks for spiritual integrity. Spiritual Integrity is knowing what is right to be done, being convinced of it and living by it, come what may. Even if we have to face extinction from this life, our stand shall not change. Just as John the Baptist who was ready to give up even his life. 

But how do we know what we are holding on to is right? That is where we need to be divinely informed, where we need the grace, the help of the Holy Spirit to hold on to eternally life-giving perspectives. May the Spirit always illumine us!