God desires mercy, not legalistic sacrifices

Good News ReflectionFriday of the 15th Week in Ordinary TimeJuly 17, 2009
Today's Saint: AlexiusPray for the homeless:http://wordbytes.org/saints/DailyPrayers/Alexius.htm
Today's Readings:Ex 11:10 -- 12:14Ps 116:12-13, 15-18Matt 12:1-8http://www.usccb.org/nab/071709.shtmlUSCCB Podcast of the Readings:http://ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/09_07_17.mp3
God desires mercy, not legalistic sacrifices
While Pope Benedict XVI was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a journalist asked him (on Nov. 30, 2002) about maintaining fidelity to old Church teachings while being open to the Holy Spirit for new interpretations. "How is it possible not to fall into the extremes of rigidity or rupture?" he asked.
The future pope replied that although "fidelity and openness seem to exclude one another," they do not. He explained that authentic fidelity to the Church "is a dynamic fidelity.... [and] participates in the dynamism of the person of Christ, who can open himself to the different challenges of reality, of the other, of the world, etc."
This dynamism – the ability to adapt to life's challenges instead of remaining static – is what shook up the safe little world of the Pharisees when Jesus replaced legalism with love. In today's Gospel reading, they didn't attack Jesus simply to give him a hard time. They truly believed that to be right with God, one must obey all the laws and rules literally and exactly. They also insisted that laws and rules were to be obeyed equally; rules that dealt with rituals were kept as rigidly as the laws that dealt with morality. So when Jesus broke some of the ritual laws, they could not imagine how he could be a holy man, let alone the long-awaited Messiah.
To explain his position, Jesus said: "It's mercy God desires, not sacrifice." It's a sacrifice to obey a law that's unpleasant. This is virtuous! However, forcing the disciples to go hungry on account of an over-ritualized definition of "work" would have been unmerciful. Jesus is responding dynamically to the needs of the people based on the real purpose behind the commandment to rest on the Sabbath. What was the real purpose? Love! God's love for us! He knows we need to rest and that without making it a commandment, those of us who work hard wouldn't get around to resting.
A sacrifice that's unloving is not what God wants. Remaining legalistically static when a situation calls for deeper examination and merciful consideration comes from a fear that any perceived disobedience is a violation of God's will and therefore deserves punishment. We forget to look at the loving purpose of the law.
The bottom line and original reason for every commandment of God and every regulation taught by the Catholic Church is love. However, this can be hard to see when we're relying on simple obedience to make us "good" enough for heaven, which will never happen. Thank God that Jesus is our Savior, not the law.
Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath; his love has authority over the Sabbath. His love is the authority over all our religious laws, rules, and norms today. When they fail to convey the love of Jesus or they work against a person's eternal salvation, we have to rediscover their real intention and determine how it applies to the current situation. This is how we remain faithful to the Church's teachings without being merciless.
Mercy is a dynamic response to the challenges of a changing world. If we want to imitate Christ, we have to become dynamic Christians.
© 2009 by Terry A. ModicaFor PERMISSION to copy any of my reflections, go to:http://gogoodnews.net/DailyReflections/copyrights-DR.htm
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