The true meaning of the God-given law

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As we read today's gospel from Matthew 5:17, we could think that Jesus is making a statement that is in complete opposition to his daily practice. He said, ''Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to complete them.'' And yet he constantly broke what the Jews called the Law; he did not observe the hand washings that the Law demanded. He was accused of healing sick people on the Sabath which was forbidden by the Law. He was condemned and crucified as a law-breaker. How can we reconcile these two positions? First of all we have to see what the Jews meant by the Law. The 10 commandments were the basis but they are general principles so the Scribes set to work to interpret their meaning for daily living. They spent hours arguing if it broke the Sabbath if someone moved a lamp from one place to another, or if a woman could wear a brooch, go out with false teeth or lift a child. They ended up with thousands of petty rules and regulations which were human interpretations, which only served to make the people feel guilty victims of a punishing God. Those were the laws that Jesus disregarded, as he strove to teach the true meaning of the God-given law: respect and reverence for God, for parents, for life and property. True reverence and respect did not consist in obeying a multitude of petty regulations. They meant not legalism but love, not in negative prohibitions but in the positive and liberating instruction to live not in fear of failure but in the freedom of a relationship of deep friendship for God and all our brothers and sisters. Lent is our special time to live that teaching.