First Reading: Deuteronomy (4:1, 5–9).
Responsorial Psalm: (Psalm 147).
Response: Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem.
Gospel: Matthew (5:17–19).
Reflection
Our readings today speak about the law, and the first thing we need to ask is: Which law are we talking about? Here we are speaking about the Mosaic Law, the law given by God through Moses to the people of Israel.
Jesus says in the Gospel that not one letter of the law will pass away until everything is fulfilled. To understand this, we must go back to the Book of Deuteronomy. When God gave the law to Moses, He instructed the people: do not add to it and do not subtract from it.
After the Israelites returned from their 70-year exile in Babylon, they were determined that such a disaster would never happen again. Their ancestors had strayed far from the law, and they believed that was why they suffered exile. But in their effort to avoid repeating that mistake, they did something else that was problematic. They began adding many interpretations and extra rules, sometimes losing the spirit of the law itself.
By the time Jesus appeared, some religious leaders had become so focused on strict interpretations that they misunderstood the true purpose of the law. When Jesus healed, forgave sins, or showed mercy in ways that did not fit their interpretations, they thought He was breaking the law.
But Jesus taught something deeper. The law itself does not save; the intention of the heart is what God looks for.
God had already summarized the commandments long before:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.
This was prayed every day in the Shema prayer, yet over time the people had forgotten the heart of it. Fundamentally, the law exists to help us love.
Now we are in the season of Lent, a time when we look back over our lives and examine ourselves honestly. The essential questions for us are simple but challenging:
Have I loved God with my whole being, my heart, my soul, and my strength?
Have I shown that love by loving my neighbor?
Often we respond with excuses: “Yes, but this person hurt me,” or “That person treated me unfairly.” But love does not include conditions like that. Love is love.
This is why Christianity can be difficult. The ability to love exists within us, yet we often struggle to live it out. Love requires sacrifice, just as forgiveness requires sacrifice.
Why should we forgive someone who has hurt us? Because we follow the example of Christ, the sinless one who gave His life for us.
Saint Paul once asked whether we have ever struggled in love “to the point of shedding blood.” Usually we have not. Yet even small acts of forgiveness can feel very difficult.
When we hold on to resentment, it becomes a spiritual toxin. Lent calls us to turn away from sin and to live the Gospel, and the Gospel is ultimately the Gospel of love.
But loving others can feel exhausting. It takes effort, patience, humility, and compassion. That is why we are given the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, Christ strengthens us so that we can live the law of love.
Whenever you find it difficult to forgive someone, look at a crucifix. Look at Christ on the cross. Even in His suffering, He prayed to the Father:
“Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
That is the model for Christian life:
forgive, love, pardon, be merciful, be compassionate.
All these require energy. So we come to the Eucharist to be renewed and strengthened, so that we may live according to God’s law.
And in the end, fulfilling the law means one thing above all:
to love.
God bless you.
Excepts from Dailt Mass Online.
Pal Ronnie
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