Surpass the Scribes and the Pharisees in Your Righteousness

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

In a wink of an eye, we are already celebrating the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, and in a few days, we will be entering into the season of Lent, beginning with Ash Wednesday.

At the same time, many Asians who follow the lunar calendar are also celebrating Lunar New Year, beginning this Tuesday. This coincidence would bring together two very different celebrations for those who are Catholics AND those who celebrate the Lunar New Year.

Lent for us is a season when we prepare for the greatest feast day of the Church, Easter! To prepare for that, we are asked to enter into a period of repentance, reflection and spiritual discipline. Spiritual exercises such as abstinence and fasting, prayers and almsgiving are essential components to the preparation.

On the other hand, the biggest Spring festival celebration on the lunar calendar is here. Traditionally, this is THE celebration for the gift of newness in life, crossing from one year to another. It is often celebrated with huge feasts and banquets. It is a time to leave behind the old and welcome the new. It is a time to spend money on new clothes, new shoes and new bags!

Wow, the two events certainly don’t sound like they can work together. So, my friends, if you are celebrating Lunar New Year and Catholic what should you do???

Should you go to the New Year’s celebration and tell your family and friends that you are fasting so you will not be eating with them during reunion dinner? Or should you just avoid the awkwardness and stay at home to pray? What should we do when we are invited to a lunar new year celebration in the days to come?

Let’s look at what Jesus said in the Gospel,

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.

Amen, I say to you, 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.”

The key to understanding the relationship between laws and fulfilment occurs here in these very lines. Jesus reminds us that he has not come to abolish but to fulfil, in other words, Jesus’ coming into humanity is to show us how we are to fulfil the intent of the law, and all these he says, will not pass until all things have taken place? What are the things that Jesus wants to take place so that we can leave beyond the letters of laws to bring them to fulfilment? What is the fulfillment of the laws? How can we live as Jesus wants us to?

Before we answer this question, my brothers and sisters, I would like to share a story with you, a very real experience that happened in my life.

In 2020, CoVID-19 hit Bolivia where I was serving my Overseas-Training Program. When the city I worked in went into a lockdown, I volunteered to stay in a care facility for elders. The work was tough because I was assigned to the infirmary where the men I took care of needed additional help in their daily needs. At one point, when CoVID-19 entered into the center, almost all of us were infected. So, the those who were not, were asked to leave. In the infirmary we had about 17 older men that a sister and I had to take care of.

One day, just as we were preparing lunch for the elders, the phone rang and the superior of the community asked the sister to go to the chapel. I was a little shocked because this would be the busiest period that we have. We had to prepare the food for the elders and they did not like when their lunch was delayed.

But the sister had no choice, in the constitution, the law of her community, they must respond to their superior out of obedience and not question the request. So she left and there was nothing we could do. The law must be followed.

Alone, I had to handle the preparation of the food. I have to cut the oranges into slices, minced the food and meat into a soup for those who cannot handle solid food. I also needed to portion the food into individual plates for the rest of the elders.

I did the oranges first. I peeled off the skin and separated them into small bowls and then quickly distributed them to the elders so that they have something to start with.

Then, I went back into the kitchen to continue to blend the food into a soup for the elders. As I got busy, I heard some noises from the dining room and I went out to take a look. To my shock, one of the elders had choked on a piece of orange. His face looked dark purple and he was struggling on the floor, clutching his throat. I was terrified. I rushed to try to help him. I tried to look into this mouth but could not see anything. Since I was trained in First Aid, I adjusted his position and did the Heimlich maneuver. After a few tries, the piece of orange finally came out. I felt relieved but also angry at the same time. I was angry that this had happened because I was left alone at the busiest time, I was left alone when 17 elderly men needed both of us to take care of them. It was a very painful experience for me.

My friend, this could have turn into a tragic experience of a man dying because there were not enough people taking care of the group. In obedience to the law of her community, the sister left me, left all the elderly men in a lurch. We didn’t have her when we most needed her. We didn’t have her even though we are her responsibility too! She didn’t know it at that time, but she had left us so that she could fulfil her Superior’s request to do flower arrangement in the chapel. She followed the law, but did she fulfil her calling from God?

Jesus’ lesson for us today is to understand the intent of the laws and fulfil the fullest intent of those words. That is why Jesus came, he came so that he can show us how to fulfil the letters of the laws, he can so that he can fulfil it with His life, to be crucified, died and buried, so that when all these things have taken place, he will be resurrected.

He will be resurrected so that we can understand if we fulfil the laws the way he shows us, we too, share in His resurrection.

That is why in the wisdom of Ben-Sira in the book of Sirach, he reminds us to trust in God, and to keep the commandments, to always choose good, to always choose life, because God understands man’s every deed.

Yes! God understands every deed, every intent of our action or inaction.

And Saint Paul adds to this by saying that “the Spirit scrutinizes EVERYTHING, even the depths of God. The Spirit scrutinizes, examines not with the wisdom of this age. Saint Paul is speaking of a scrutiny through God’s wisdom, which is mysterious and hidden,

hidden from those who trust in the wisdom of the world.

And yet, today, before the Gospel, we acclaimed,

“Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth;

you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom.”

we, the little ones, may just get a chance to receive this revelation of the mysteries of the kingdom – revelations to bring fulfilment to the laws.

My friend, to bring to fulfilment all the intent of the laws, we must hear again what St Paul reminds us:

“What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,

and what has not entered the human heart,

what God has prepared for those who love him,

this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”

Yes, the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God is revealed to us through the Spirit to those who LOVE God.

When we deeply love God, we learn that the fulfilment of all laws center on love:

“You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

In all laws, use these two greatest commandments given by Jesus to examine our actions and then, we will know what to do to bring fulfilment of the laws in different situations.

The sister I worked with respected the law more than the people God had put into her care. Her obedience to her superior overpowered the love that God was asking from her for the elders and for me. A life could have been lost that day because she didn’t understand the purpose of the law. It is the same for us today as we are meditating on how to be a loving Catholic during the season of Lent and the Lunar New Year celebrations. Many Asian bishops have given dispensations in their diocese for Catholics celebrating Lunar New Year from fasting on Ash Wednesday and abstinence on the Friday following Ash Wednesday. Yet, the bishops appeal to the faithful to offer on another day the same or equivalent acts of penance.

The law remains, my friends, but the pastoral sense of our bishops, imitates Jesus in understanding how to love with the law, through the law, and being the law.

Hence, as we prepare for the change of seasons, both liturgical and secular, let us continue to ask for the grace of wisdom that God offers through the sacrifice of Jesus at this altar. Help us to love like Jesus, help us to surpass empty lawful and proper actions and deeply infuse what we do with the love for and of God!