Mercy and the Law

by Editor · October 22, 2014

God�s laws are meant to lead all people to Christ and his glory � and if they do not, then they are obsolete. In fact, the scholars of the law in Jesus� day were so wrapped up in doctrine as an end in itself that they were unable to see that Jesus was leading people down a new and surprising path towards his glory.

An ultra-Orthodox scribe completing a Torah scroll. (Photo: AP)

“The scholars were safeguarding the law out of love, to be faithful to God, but they were closed up and forgot all the ways in which God has acted in history.” (Photo: AP)

Jesus did strange things, such as walking with sinners and eating with tax collectors � things the scholars of the law did not like.

Faced with Jesus� option for those who did not live up to the laws, doctrine was seen to be in danger � the doctrine of the law which they and the theologians had created over the centuries.

The scholars were safeguarding the law out of love, to be faithful to God, but they were closed up and forgot all the ways in which God has acted in history. They forgot that God is not only the God of the law, but also the God of surprises.

The scholars of the law had forgotten how many times God surprised his people, for example when he freed the Jews from slavery in Egypt. They were too wrapped up in their perfect system of laws where everyone knew exactly what they were supposed to do.

It was all settled, and the scholars felt very secure. However, they could not see beyond this system, which they had made with lots of goodwill. Faced with Jesus� dissenting ways, they could not read the signs of the times.

The scholars could not see that what Jesus was doing was a sign indicating that �the time was ripe�. This is why Jesus said, �This generation is an evil generation� (Lk 11:29-32), because it sought the wrong kind of sign.

The scholars of the law also forgot that the people of God are a people on a journey on which one always finds new things which one never knew before. But the journey, like the law, is not an end in itself; it is a path towards the ultimate manifestation of the Lord.

Life is a journey towards the fullness of Jesus Christ, when he will come again.

The law teaches the way to Christ, but if the law does not lead to Jesus Christ and if it doesn�t get us closer to him, then it is dead.

In this way we are challenged to reflect: �Am I attached to my things, my ideas? Am I closed? Am I at a standstill or am I a person on a journey? Do I believe in Jesus Christ, in what Jesus did, dying for humanity�s sins and rising again?�

And we must ask ourselves: �Am I able to understand the signs of the times and be faithful to the voice of the Lord that is manifested in them?�

We must pray to be able to walk towards maturity, towards the manifestation of the glory of the Lord, and to have a heart that loves the law, because the law is God�s.

And we must pray that people may also be able to love God�s surprises and to know that this holy law is not an end in itself.

The above are the words of Pope Francis, made in his homily during his morning Mass in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives, on October 13, as reported by Vatican Radio.

He has made the point before: that an overemphasis on the law can obscure God�s love for us and block people�s path to him.

But the timing of this striking homily will not have escaped the alert observer. It came in the midst of this month�s extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family, in which there were evident tensions between those who proposed pastoral practice grounded in mercy, and those who insisted on a strict emphasis on the Church�s doctrine (with many participants doubtless falling somewhere between these positions).

The Holy Father has made his case for giving priority to mercy in the pastoral application of the Church�s laws over an inflexible insistence on strict adherence to doctrine.

Where we, as the Church, should proceed from there will be the subject of ongoing reflection, dialogue and, invariably, spirited contestation.