Matthew 5:17-19 I Have Come to Fulfill the Law

Yesterday was "Super Tuesday" and several states voted in their primaries.  Apparently history was made. This morning the Supreme Court decided to take the case on whether to uphold a Texas law that forces abortion clinics to upgrade their facilities to hospital standards in case of emergency and women's health.    Presidents and laws are people that we elect to govern us and laws that are to govern us.  They are civil laws made by men. 

Moses on the other hand was a man of God.  To him, his prophet, God gave instruction and laws to not only help his chosen people get along together in a society, but to teach them humility that they were not the end-all, but that their strength came from something far greater than them.  The Israelites listened.  God said, ‘This great nation is truly a wise and intelligent people.’

When Jesus came and seemed to defy some of the Laws that the religious leaders enforced, like restoring life through healing to the injured and sick, or picking wheat on the Sabbath because he and his disciples were hungry, many thought he came to abolish the law.  Jesus taught that there was no life in the Law that the Father had given the people because the people had made it all about the rules and forgotten that God so loved them.  For them it was a chore to be fulfilled.  It was empty without the love that was intended as part of it.  Jesus tells us in today's Gospel that he did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.  He comes as love itself and as God made manifest is able to complete the Law and offer us a new covenant.  Unlike our man-made laws that change as our needs as society changes, God's covenant and agreement with us will never change because he created us each unique, knew us before we were born, and loves us completely. 

Matthew 9:14-15

for today's reading (http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021216.cfm)

Today Jesus is asked why he and his disciples do not fast.  He answers, "Can the wedding guests mourn when the bridegroom is with them?" 

The contrast is striking: Mourning and joyful.  He reminds us that he is the groom.  We are his love.  How can we be sad?  This Lent are we mindful of his immense love?  What sacrifice can we give him that will bring us closer to him?  Is it a sacrifice of prayer?  A few brief moments before the tabernacles between work and lunch?  How do we make him our first priority?  The answer is different for everyone.  Let the Spirit lead you.