Liturgical Colour : Green

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we listened to the words of the Scriptures, all of us are reminded that each and every one of us as part of the Church of God, as His people and as His beloved ones, His disciples and followers, we are all expected and called to do what He has given us in His Law and commandments, in all the things which He has taught and shown us to do in our lives. Each and every one of us as Christians are reminded to understand what we have been presented in God’s Law and commandments so that we may truly fulfil them wholeheartedly and meaningfully, and not falling into the trap of hypocrisy and lukewarmness in faith which our ancestors and predecessors had fallen into. All of us need to be truly faithful in all things, and commit ourselves to the works that God has entrusted to us.

In our first reading today, taken from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians, we heard of how the Apostle spoke to the faithful people in Corinth with regards to the matter of the Law and commandments of God, and how all of them need to obey the Law and the commandments beyond merely written text and the letter of the Law, lest we misunderstand and think that St. Paul was telling the faithful not to obey the Law of God. That was what St. Paul meant when he said that ‘the written text kills, but the Spirit gives life’, referring to how obeying merely the letter of the Law without understanding its meaning, context and purpose will lead us into the ‘death’ of our faith, as our faith will likely be nothing more than just empty and dead expression of our Christian faith, instead of a true, genuine and living faith that we all should have in us.

In the past, this was exactly what many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had done in their lives, as they chose to obey the Law in the superficial manner, taking the letter of the Law to the extreme, interpreting the Law and the commandments according to their own way of thinking, and demanding that the people of God obey the very oppressive set of rules, regulations and rituals without truly understanding and appreciating the rationale behind why one should obey and follow such aforementioned Law and commandments. That was why the Lord Himself criticised those Pharisees and teachers of the Law, especially in the manner how they had lived their lives and in their observance of the Law, telling the faithful that while they ought to listen to their teachings and preaching, but they should not follow the way those Pharisees and teachers of the Law lived.

That was because many among the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law became enslaved by their own vanity, pride, ambition and ego, through which they ended up desiring more of the worldly glory and fame that they had attained in the community, by fiercely and zealously guarding their way of living the Law and their interpretation of the Law and the Scriptures. Hence, that was why they refused to listen to the Lord or believe in the truth which He has clearly presented before all of them. They thought that they were superior and better than others, and that their ideas and interpretations of the Law could not have been wrong, and hence, they bitterly and strongly opposed the Lord and His works, seeing Him, His popularity and teaching authority as great threats to their established status and power.

In our Gospel passage today, the Lord made it clear to all those who listened to Him, which might very well had consisted of some of those Pharisees and teachers of the Law who frequently followed Him wherever He went, that He came into this world not to eradicate or destroy the Law and the commandments of God. On the contrary, He came to us so that He might reveal to us the true and fuller meaning of the Law and commandments of God, by giving us greater insight and understanding of what the Law of God is all about, that is truly about loving God and loving one another, and to live righteously in the manner that God has expected us to live our lives. The Law is not about making a show of our faith or about discriminating or looking down on others who may not agree with us or whom we perceived and deemed to be less worthy than us.

The Lord also made that very clear because the same Pharisees and teachers of the Law often misunderstood and even misrepresented the Lord’s efforts and teachings as the efforts to destroy or replace the old Law of God as revealed through Moses and passed down through many generations of the people of God. Instead, the Lord came to make clear to His beloved people the true meaning and intention of the Law that He Himself has presented to them. That Law had long been misunderstood and misinterpreted, and over the succeeding centuries and ages, the true meaning and context of the Law had been lost over countless rituals, misunderstood tenets and practices that were not in the original intention of the Law when the Lord revealed it to His people through His servant Moses. That Law was meant to bring the people of God closer to Him, and to remind them all to love Him and to love one another.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, that is why all of us are reminded today to be truly and genuinely faithful to the Lord in all things, in the Law that He has presented to us and taught us. All of us have to do what God has commanded us to do, and when we do it, we need to make sure that we truly understand the meaning and the intention of the Law and the commandments, the rules that the Church has presented to us among other things. Unless we have the right understanding and appreciation of the importance and significance of God’s Law and commandments, it is easy for us to wander off into the wrong path and live our lives not being centred on God but rather on ourselves and on our own selfish desires and ambitions, like how pride and ego, greed and ambition had affected those Pharisees and teachers of the Law.

Therefore, let us all seek the Lord with renewed faith and conviction, as we dedicate ourselves more thoroughly to His cause from now on. Let us all be more faithful and be ever more genuine in our expression of faith, so that by our inspiring examples and virtuous and worthy way of life, we may inspire more and more people to come ever closer to God and His presence. May the Lord bless us all and may He empower us to live ever more worthily at all times, now and always. Amen.