OBEYING THE LAW

A REFLECTION FOR THE 12TH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

God gave the Jews not just the Ten Commandments to cover the divine and natural laws, but also hundreds of other rules and regulations, disciplinary laws on diet, ablutions, purifications—every aspect of life was affected, from childbirth and circumcision to burial.  Orthodox Jews still follow these laws today.  We do not.  

As Catholics, we continue to follow the laws of God and of nature, but the disciplinary laws of the Old Testament have mostly been abrogated. The Church has given us just a few to remind us that we should voluntarily, by our own free will, give up things that would not otherwise be sinful, such as meat on Fridays, shopping on Sundays, and so on.  But for the most part, we have done away with the laws of the Talmud.  The Church understands that disciplinary laws, in a sense, interfere with our free will to offer up penances to God.  We tend to become pharisaical with this type of law, obeying them simply because it is the law, rather than out of love for God.

At Vatican II, the naïve (or perhaps insidious?) Paul VI did away with the law of Friday abstinence, telling people they should make up their own penances. Catholics were encouraged to use their imagination, giving up this or that, as the Spirit moved them.  Naturally, people ended up doing no penance whatsoever, and the experiment was a total failure.  That’s why, as traditional Catholics, we retain those old dietary laws and observation of the Sabbath the Church imposed before Vatican II.  These laws are our anchor that keep us steady in the stormy waters of this world, preventing us from drifting off into the open waters where “Do what thou wilt” takes over from any thought of giving up our will for God’s sake.

Nevertheless, even we traditionalists must constantly remind ourselves of the real reason why we follow these disciplinary laws and indeed, all laws of God, the Church, and Nature.  Not because we have to, not out of fear of any consequence for disobeying them. But because we love God.  If ye love God, ye will keep his commandments.  And instead of being prisoners to the law, the opposite happens to us—we are freed to do whatever we really want to do, because what we want to do is God’s will rather than our own.  “Love God, and do what thou wilt.”