Hebrews 9:2-3. 11-14
Mark 3:20-21
People who adhere to the old covenant are always more concerned about external appearances and practices. If a person does not follow the external applications of the Law, the person is committing sin, and all sorts of misfortune will befall him. Indeed people saw, and still see, a person’s position and status in life as a reflection of the person’s standing with God.
When we read the Bible, we see the Jewish prophets struggling with such a concept, and that over time, we find that they discover that such a concept is not true after all, since God always has a preferential love for the poor. Israel herself was poor and small, conquered many times and exiled, yet God never stopped loving her and blessing her whenever she came back to Him.
It just goes to show that we cannot judge a person’s interior life based on his or her external life. Even so, we Christians who are supposed to be living the new covenant, continue to adhere to the old way. We look at people who don’t go for Mass on Sundays and we think, “This is a bad Catholic.” Are we not judging this person based on what he or she does externally? And are we not assuming that we know better than this person what his or her state of soul is like?
It could be that a person who goes for Mass only when he or she is in a proper disposition for worship has a better state of soul than someone who goes for Mass every Sunday out of obligation – the obligation that is characteristic of the old covenant. It could be a person who dresses “skimpily” or in clothes that are deemed “disrespectful of the Lord” has a holier interior life than a person who judges him or her by what is seen on the surface.
In today’s gospel reading, we find that Jesus’ relatives making the same mistake. Observing a huge crowd outside the house, they were convinced that Jesus was out of his mind, and set out to take charge of him. They had already placed a judgement on Jesus just by observing the externals. Yet can we blame them, when we do the very same thing practically every day?
The characteristic of the new covenant then, is not adherence to a set of rules out of obedience to a Law that cannot save. It is adherence to rules out of love. A person who is born of the new covenant, a covenant of love and self-giving, does not feel compelled to obey a rule that he or she disagrees with; rather, such a person already agrees with such a rule because the rule is written in our hearts. In other words, we love God and obey God because we want to. And we do not insist that our brother or sister do the same as we do, for they love God and obey Him in their own way, a way that we cannot judge because we cannot see into their hearts and souls.
Filed under: Daily Reflections
Thanks for that very insightful post:)
You’re welcome.
‘If a person does not follow the external applications of the Law, the person is committing sin, and all sorts of misfortune will befall him’.
Yes, i agree this statement, but are you really following the old Law? If you are Sunday keeper or going to church every Sunday or believed that Sunday is the day of worship, i can say that you’re not following the Old law and you are committing sin as what the above statement, why? bec. it is Saturday not Sunday in the old Law. Sunday commandment is man’s commandment not God, God’s commandment is Saturday the Seventh day of the week which is the Sabbath day to keep it holy according to the fourth commandment. So this is the old Law that we have to follow!