Saturday, September 20, 2014
The Spirit Of The Law
The Sabbath is very important to the Jewish people. The Lord God commanded His people to work for six days and to rest on the Sabbath Day.
Exodus 20:10 but the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your animals, nor any foreigner residing in your towns.
This was what the Pharisees and the teachers of the law knew. They commanded the people to follow the letter of the law to the fullest. All work was forbidden. So, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath Day, the Pharisees were quick to condemn Him for breaking the Sabbath law. There were people who wanted to destroy Jesus because of His healing on the Sabbath, His declaration of being God (which they considered blasphemy), His novel interpretation of the precepts of the law regarding purity, and His close association with tax collectors and prostitutes. Christ was accused of blasphemy and other religious crimes, which the law calls for death by stoning. Unfortunately, these people were so much into the law that they could not see the miracle that Jesus performed as He healed the blind and the lame. They could not see that there was something there greater than the law. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
CCC 2173 The Gospel reports many incidents when Jesus was accused of violating the sabbath law. But Jesus never fails to respect the holiness of this day.98 He gives this law its authentic and authoritative interpretation: "The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath."99 With compassion, Christ declares the sabbath for doing good rather than harm, for saving life rather than killing.100 The sabbath is the day of the Lord of mercies and a day to honor God.101 "The Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."102
This is not to say that the law is bad or that we should disobey the law. Following the Spirit of the Law is not a means to avoiding the Letter of the Law. It is a means of understanding what the real purpose of the Law is, and keeping the Letter of the Law in the context of the two greatest commandments, which is to love God with your whole heart, mind, and and soul and to love your neighbor as yourself.
Christ said that you will know His disciples by their fruits. The fruits are miracles of the Holy Spirit. When one is so much into the law, as the Pharisees were, they would miss the miracles that are apparent in the Neocatechumenal Way. These fruits are not man-made, but comes from the Holy Spirit. It is only by the grace of God that one can truly forgive one's enemies and even be open to life.
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Excellent article. You hit the nail on its head. The good news is that some brothers and sisters who were in a crisis and left temporarily the Neocatechumenal Way have come back to community because of all this hoopla. On the other hand, it would be really tragic if even one of the far-away people who was thinking of coming back to the Church through the Neocatechumenal Way got discouraged because of all this open criticism. Matthew 18 : "… but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” What a responsibility!
ReplyDeleteJonathan's Hartgrove (Founder of the New Monasticism) argument is that Jesus didn't have a strategic imagination. Jesus didn't come with a social program or political platform. In fact, in the temptations Jesus rejects the strategic, programmatic, power-grabbing, empire-building and institutional approach. According to Jonathan Jesus's imagination was tactical rather than strategic.
ReplyDeleteA tactical imagination is characterized by "social engagement as an interruption of the status quo."
These interruptions remind us that there is hope, that another world is possible." The interruption is "a sign that points us to the Kingdom."
Diana, what you said about Jesus not following/disobeying the Sabbath is a tactical approach of Jesus as methods of resistance and interruption coming from the margins that point to the coming of the Kingdom.
What Junglewatch is doing like Jesus, engaging the heart of tactical Christian social engagement: Going to places where you shouldn't go (challenging the authority of the AAA and the Neo Catechumenate in the island)and doing something there you shouldn't do to name Jesus as Lord and King.
By the way Ernie, you asked me what i was doing from the time I left the community in 1997, i kept myself busy by teaching in the University (Catholic) and finishing my graduate studies (MA Religious Studies, MS Kinesiology, MDivinity, and working on my Dissertation for Religious and Values Education).
Dear Isaias,
DeleteI asked a couple of times if you believe that Jesus is God. You still have not answered that question. Do you believe that Jesus is God?
However, in your statement above, you stated the following (capitalization is my emphasis):
Going to places where you shouldn't go (challenging the authority of the AAA and the Neo Catechumenate in the island)and doing something there you shouldn't do TO NAME JESUS AS LORD AND KING.
Does this mean that you do now see Jesus as Lord and King? Are you saying that you do not believe that Jesus is God? The questions I am asking is very important so that people reading my blog can understand where you are coming from. Do you believe that Jesus is God?
Diana Isias is copy and pasting. I get tired reading just his or her first paragraph.
DeleteThanks Diana, now I understand you and your NeoCats much better! You say we should obey the Law, meaning the Jewish Law from the books of Moses. Never mind St Paul was on the opposite opinion and he expressed his teaching in innumerable places in his letters in Bible. I don't even need to quote, I hope. Can you find it in the Bible, Diana? (smile)
ReplyDeleteMaking a long story short, what you say and what you preach, dear Diana, I guess the same as the teaching of the NeoCat, is not following St. Paul, not following the Bible. It is against the teaching of the Church. It is not Catholic! Now, try to eventually understand, please, what you guys are all about and what you are doing among the sheep.
Dear voice of faith,
DeleteThe title of the post is "Spirit of the Law." It means that we follow the Spirit of the Law rather than the Letter of the Law. As for St. Paul, he preached the same thing because St. Paul also said that the law was holy. Because the law was holy (as St. Paul says) this does not mean that God's commandments should be done away with. Thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not steal, etc. are God's laws, and Christ did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfil it. According to St. Paul (capitalization is my emphasis):
Romans 7:6-14 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should SERVE IN THE NEWNESS OF THE SPIRIT AND NOT IN THE OLDESS OF THE LETTER. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, “You shall not covet.” ..............Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Has then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through the commandment might become exceedingly sinful, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.
voice-of-faith September 21, 2014 at 5:53 AM
DeleteSpirit of the Law....Spirit of the Law ....that transformed St. Paul who proclaimed, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.
Voice sorry to say but you have no clue what is the mission of the Way unless your walking but not being in the sidelines prejudging before you see it.
DeleteOh, yeah, it is too convenient to ignore the Circumcision Law, right? You just push forward the mantra of sneaky binding of good Christians to the Ancient and atavistic. But you don't realize about the single Circumcision Law, how it is impossible to put it in you bag of shady reinterpretations of Holy Scripture. St Paul's letters cry out about this practice as an outrageous crime against the Christian belief! Please, open you Bible sometimes and read. I wonder how can you cut the flesh and collect the red blood, very tangible demands, in the "spiritual sense"...
DeleteI have no doubt though that you will try even that one to explain away. Ouch, the blindness of the faithless in the Lord!
Dear El Camino, Diana saying that my Lord Jesus "was NOT Christian" is just well enough for me to know about the sectarian way you guys think of faith and Christ in the NeoCat. This would completely justify the reservations expressed in the better educated segments of Jungle Watch.
DeleteDear voice of faith,
DeleteFor a Catholic, you need to read the Holy Bible. First of all, it was God who established the circumcision law. So before you start degrading this law, just remember......that it was God (not man) who made this law that YOU are calling a "crime."
Finally, while it is true that St. Paul says that circumcision is not necessary for the Gentile converts, you forget that St. Paul ALSO had a Gentile convert circumcised.
Acts 16:3 Paul wanted to take him along on the journey, so he circumcised him because of the Jews who lived in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek.
BEHOLD!!! See what it says in the Holy Bible, voice of faith?????? St. Paul had Timothy circumcised before taking him on the journey. St. Paul never said that circumcision was evil or a crime...because in the first place, it was law established by God. St. Paul says that circumcision has been replaced by baptism. Just as the Sabbath day (Saturday) was replaced by Sunday (the Lord's Day) so has circumcision been replaced by baptism.
Dear voice of faith,
DeleteI do not know who taught you that Christ was a Christian. He was a Jew. The word "Christian" did not exist until after Christ ascended into Heaven. And the first people who were called "Christians" were the converts in Antioch. Again, read the Holy Bible.
Jesus was the founder of Christianity that was named after Him! He was not Christian by the letter, He was Christian in the Spirit! Hahh. Now you live with that, please.
DeleteDear voice of faith,
DeleteYou say that Christ was "Christian in the Spirit"????? Voice of faith, Jesus is God....plain and simple.
Are you saying that the Sabbath should be on a Saturday and it is considered the Day of the Lord? I learned that when Christ ressurected on a Sunday, this became the Holy Day of the Lord! Since you seem to be so knowledgable about the Christian Faith, explain this!
ReplyDeleteDear Anonymous at 8:04 am,
DeletePlease read my post again. I said that the Sabbath was important to the Jewish people. Are Catholics Jewish?? I also said that Christ was accused of breaking the Sabbath law. Christ was a Jew. He was NOT Christian.
I think, dear Diana, that some people have problems in reading. Their prejudices alter their sight. I am referring to Anonymous, Voice of Faith and the Karate kid Isaiah Ginson. “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” I forgot who said this but it explains some of the comments that are put on your page.
ReplyDelete