Memorial of St. Francis of Padua

Today’s Gospel lesson challenges me to break out of the false dichotomy that I’ve created by thinking about commandments, laws, sacrifices and punishments demanded by “Old Testament God-The-Father” from love, grace, forgiveness and salvation offered by “New Testament God-The-Son”.  In the lesson, we read:

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law…  until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place…  whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.”

So what is Jesus saying to his disciples and to us?  What depth is he trying to add to my rather childish tendency toward an either-or choice?  Do I follow the laws and worry less about whether I am deserving of God’s grace?  Or do I accept grace and salvation in my heart and not worry much about following the laws?   

A conversation with a young, faith-filled friend helped to shed some light on this question for me.  We talked about The Commandments as being aspirational, yes, but also a sort of a minimum expectation set by God that helps to bound or guide our free will.  In the developmental process for any human (or even when training a dog, or breaking a horse) we grow through varied stages, ideally adapting and ultimately integrating the external factors and forces into our core beliefs and behaviors. 

Is Jesus teaching us that God – or Parent, or Teacher, or Coach, or Trusted Friend – begins with strength and a tight grip, to then allow for increasing freedom, experimentation, and individual differentiation over time?  That God’s CORE laws (not the human-constructed detailed legislation meant for definition and daily execution of God’s commandments) are meant to become the fabric of our being, so that we can better exercise God’s gift to humans of free will?  So that we might sin and forgive, grow in spirit, love and be loved?  So that we can choose to both incorporate the law and accept the grace?    

This particular reflection has helped me to make more sense of the dichotomy I’ve long projected:  to better understand how I was parented by my own loving father and to ultimately open my heart a bit to the “Old Testament God-The-Father” that I’ve long held at arm’s length; to imagine that God-The-Father was a necessary antecedent to God-The-Son, whose love may have been less visible, welcome or appreciated had it come first; to marvel at the realization – long understood in parenting – that it is the two together that help to form the healthiest offspring. 

For those readers who are still making sense of this all:  you are not alone;
To those readers who have long had this figured out: well done; and,   
To those readers who are able to experience and embrace God-The-Father, God-The-Son, and God-The-Holy-Spirit three in one:  Alleluia!  Yours is the gift of a rich and blessed faith. 

May God’s Peace be with us all.  Amen.