In a way, we are no different from the Jews or the Gentiles during the time of Jesus. They were unable to grasp or fathom a Messiah who could die. For us, a mortal Messiah is not a scandal. We are used to seeing a Corpus on the Cross. Maybe too used to it because what challenges us is not the dying Christ on the Cross but the tendency to separate law and its spirit. Law constraints whereas the spirit enables.
This tendency ties in with the age of achievement where autonomy is a coveted value. No one likes the restrictions imposed on personal freedom as “laws” often do. Freedom is understood as the ability to exercise our individual autonomy without external restraints. Is there an opposition between restriction and freedom? Given this type of tension, how do we reconcile restraint with autonomy?
Firstly, recognise that relationship is at the heart of the Law. The Gospel is a good example. Christ drove the traders out not because they were trading but because they had not fully appreciated the centrality of God in the Temple. The Temple is not only sacred but also a restricted space where God comes first and the traders defiled its sanctity by prioritising commercial dealings over man’s relationship with God.
Secondly, to understand the commandments in the context the spirit, we must survey the connexion between laws and punishment. Penalty is a measure of the value of whatever, be it a person, a thing or a concept, that a law is protecting. The more we esteem a reality, the greater the penalty is attached to violating the law. A good example are the laws surrounding a woman’s honour. They are highly punitive because a woman is highly esteemed. Perhaps one can understand why the laws against rape are harshly draconian in some countries.
Thirdly, there is a correlation between sin and suffering meaning that the consequence of sin, apart from punishment, is suffering. Before we delve into their association, what needs to be clarified is that there is no suggestion that the person who suffers is a sinner. The prime example is Jesus Christ crucified. Suffice to say that there is a price to be paid for our sins which Christ took upon Himself.
With regard to suffering as a result of sin, we have come to expect that a merciful and forgiving Deity should also be understanding and accepting. In the past, God’s commandments were accepted as literally written on stone. The best illustration is Moses depicted as carrying the two tablets. Since they were carved in concrete, Man simply obeyed. But today, those who follow the letter of the law literally would be as “fundamentalist” and generally they are lumped together with “right-wing, conspiracists and nut-cases” etc.
Take the case of what happened in the 80s. When AIDS arrived at the scene, the notion that the disease is God’s punishment for aberration in sexual behaviour, notably between same sex, was unaccepted. This rejected view was considered to be so out of touch with the idea of a God who is gentle and merciful. God is not that type of a God.
The Gospel gives us an aspect of God which might come as a surprise to us. Christ’s zeal for the Father’s house reminds us that our relationship with God takes priority. He who emptied the Temple did so because there are times and spaces that we protect. In other words, if relationship is at the heart of today’s Gospel, then the question should not be centred on “this” law or “that” law but instead, the focus is on how our relationships are circumscribed by time and space.
What sort of time do we give to God? Do we give Him enough time or merely left-over and tired time? Take the Sunday obligation. As a duty, it sounds more legal than relational because we are compelled to make space and give time to our relationship with God. How is that a relationship? To appreciate the legality involved, we need to understand that the nature of time is not just passing but it is also sacred. The Christian measure of time is markedly holy.
No matter how much we tried to change AD (Anno Domini) to CE (Common Era), time remains sacred because we measure it “In the year of the Lord”. The birth of Christ is the measure of all time—before His coming and after. We live, move and have our being in God’s time. Time is holy when translated, it means we give God the best. The Divine Office, the Church’s official prayer allocates periods of time to communing with, time to raise our minds and hearts to the praise and glory of God. Midnight, morning, mid-morning etc.
However, the reality is that the Church is not at all that demanding. Church law states that there are holy days of obligation where Catholics are bound to attend Mass. In practical terms. 52 Sundays in a year added with 4 other days of obligation. Less if one of them, like Christmas, All Saints, Assumption or Ascension, falls on a Sunday. The trouble is, when we condense that which is most central to our being into a law, we will be reduced to quibbling about how much or how little we can get away with in order to fulfil a “requirement”.
No matter what the law does, it cannot capture love. It might provide space and time for a relationship to flourish but it cannot compel. Time and space are important in any relationship. For example, why do we need to be married in Church after all, the argument is that God is everywhere. So should we not be allowed to be married at a beach? Right? Would your toilet be a suitable place for a wedding. Or perhaps the best of all is to have a cemetery right in front of your gate. Space, and not only time, is also an important marker for our relationships. Some spaces are sacred and some are not.
Time and space are markers for the proper conduct of human behaviour. Lenten penances are basically directed towards the right ordering of our relationships with God, others and ourselves. Law draws boundaries in time and space so that relationships can flourish. As Christ drove the traders out of the Temple, we should ask ourselves what traders reside in our hearts that we forget to prioritise our relationship with God. May our Lenten fast, abstinence and penances help us to do just that.
