Memorial of St. Barnabas, Apostle
“Jesus said to his disciples [and to us]: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.’” I invite you to ponder with me today what it means that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law and prophets and what that means for our lives. As our Catechism makes clear, “The Law has not been abolished, but rather man is invited to rediscover it in the person of his Master who is its perfect fulfillment” (CCC 2053). Today, let us rediscover God’s plan for our lives in the Living Word of God who perfects us in his love and beckons us to come, and follow him.
Our Gospel today comes from the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. The Catechism helps us understand, “The Law of the Gospel ‘fulfills,’ refines, surpasses, and leads the Old Law to its perfection. In the Beatitudes, the New Law fulfills the divine promises by elevating and orienting them toward the ‘kingdom of heaven.’ It is addressed to those open to accepting this new hope with faith – the poor, the humble, the afflicted, the pure of heart, those persecuted on account of Christ – and so marks out the surprising ways of the Kingdom” (CCC 1967). Jesus pushes obedience to the Law and listening to the prophets to the deeper level of the heart. We are not only to hear and to do, but to be changed and transformed! Jesus’ fulfillment of the law and prophets ushers in a radical new way of being that transcends our doing. By his fulfillment, Jesus invites us actually to enter the Kingdom of God. Moses and the prophets saw the Kingdom from a distance, we as Jesus’ disciples get to enter it and be active agents and ambassadors in it. Pause for a moment and consider that God invites us to enter into his Kingdom! Such generosity shakes me to my core . . .
As I think about Jesus fulfilling the law and the prophets, the term “embody,” or “embodiment” comes to mind. Jesus embodies all that he (the Word of God) teaches us through the Law and all that the prophets foretold about the Messianic Kingdom. We see it all coming to perfection, to fulfillment, to completion in Christ. To embody something is to possess it so fully that it becomes an inseparable part of you and to manifest who you are. Jesus IS the embodiment of the Kingdom of God; in Him we see the Kingdom manifest in all its radiance and glory. The Law and all prophetic utterance are summed up in Christ, but not as an end in itself. The law and the prophets didn’t merely find their completion in Christ, as if the summation was the final word or last descriptor. No, they find their fulfillment, their embodiment in him, which means shining beyond himself and pointing to the ultimate fulfillment which is the Kingdom of God, the new heavens and the new earth (Isa. 65:17; 66:22).
As Jesus embodies this fulfillment, the Kingdom of God, he calls us, his disciples to follow him in his embodiment. We are, after all, the Body of Christ – we are joined to our Head who leads us and enables us by his grace to follow. As part of the Body, we can’t help but embody all the same Kingdom virtues, attributes, attitudes, postures, and orientation as our Head. All that Christ manifests through his life, suffering, death, and resurrection we are called to show forth in our daily lives. All this is possible by God’s grace, as we let go of our sinful tendencies and get out of our own way.
Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets. Jesus calls you and me to exhibit the fruits of his fulfillment. What might that look like in your life today? Think for a moment about what your day would look like if you were to simply “go about your day” unconscious of who you are in Christ. Contrast that with living out this day fully conscious of being part of Christ’s Body and seeking by his grace to embody the Kingdom of God. What would it look like for you to show forth the law and the prophets, not in a rigid, legalistic way, but in a vibrant life-giving way that draws others to the Lord? How might you let your light shine today in such a way that others become curious about what makes you different, about the indwelling Christ who makes his Kingdom attractive through you?
I offer the prayer, “Radiating Christ,” by Cardinal John Henry Newman:
Dear Jesus, help me to spread Your fragrance wherever I go.
Flood my soul with Your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly, that my life may only be a radiance of Yours.
Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel Your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!
Stay with me and then I shall begin to shine as You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from You; none of it will be mine.
It will be You shining on others through me.
Let me thus praise You the way You love best, by shining on those around me.
Let me preach You without preaching, not by words but by my example, by the catching force of the sympathetic influence of what I do, the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to You.
Amen.
I’ll see you in the Eucharist, Elizabeth Wells