Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
June 10, 2020
Daily Reading from the USCCB: Matthew 5:17-19
What was the relationship between Jesus’ teaching and the Jewish law?
In today’s reading Jesus suggests that to answer that question you have to be clear about the purpose of the Jewish law. The purpose of the law and the prophets was to foster and deepen our relationship with God. If that’s what the law and the prophets are for, Jesus and his teaching–far from undermining the law–bring the law and the prophets to a whole new level of meaning and intensity.
On the other hand, anybody whose words and actions draw people away from relating to God is undermining the purpose of the law and distancing himself from the kingdom. Jesus has not come to abolish, but to clarify and to enrich.
