Take a moment to think about just the ten commandments. Can you recite them all? We won’t leave you hanging; here’s the list, courtesy of the catechism:
- I am the LORD your God. You shall not have strange Gods before me.
- You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
- Remember to keep holy the LORD’s day.
- Honor your father and your mother.
- You shall not kill.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.
Just looking at the text here – perhaps the most famous cornerstone of morality ever: What do these commandments actually require you to do?
Breaking it down, it seems that the only active things required are worshiping the Lord, keeping holy the Sabbath, and honoring your parents.
In other words, if you’re a friendless recluse who believes in God, goes to church as needed, and honors your parents, there isn’t anything else you need to do, by this text. Once your parents die – and the river of life flows ideally when we outlive our parents – you’re down to two things: believe in God, and honor the Sabbath.
Again, imagine you’re a friendless recluse. You see your neighbors. They smile and wave at you in the morning; you do not respond, and your expressions remain featureless as you slink back into your home. By the letter of the law, you’re golden! You didn’t lust after them or their stuff, you didn’t lie or steal, you didn’t kill them, you haven’t done anything!
Is that any way to live?
If the whole world behaved that way – all of us alone in our caves, coming out only as needed to go to Mass – would it be a planet worth living on?
No, the world couldn’t continue to exist if we just ignored each other; from a purely biological perspective, we need to have a certain level of social interaction and intersection for future generations of humanity to even come into being.
Compare this to the greatest commandments, as taught by Jesus (from Matthew 22:37-40): “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”
Notice how much more active those distillations are. There is no “you shall not“; merely two “you shall”s.
Today’s reading from the Second Letter to the Corinthians (3:6) encapsulates this dichotomy: “[F]or the letter brings death, but the Spirit gives life.”
We cannot live if we live by the letter of what we should be doing. Marriages cannot thrive if spouses only do the bare minimum necessary to keep from violating their marital covenants. Children cannot flourish if parents only do the bare minimum necessary to keep their kids alive. Friendships cannot endure if we only do the bare minimum necessary to keep from calling each other enemies.
Jesus calls us all to do more. In today’s Gospel selection from Matthew (5:17), Christ begins to make this clear: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” In other words, Jesus finishes the work begun by the ten commandments and the laws of Moses. Yes, we must know the commandments (“whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew 5:19), because they form the foundation. But in the same way an acorn is not the same as an oak tree, the letter of the law is not an end unto itself, but a means to help us love the Lord and love our neighbors.
The laws of Moses dictate how we must not fall below a certain threshold; the Spirit compels us to do better. The letter of the law usually demands what we must not do; the Spirit fills our soul with the impetus and knowledge of what we must do. (Jesus drives this point further home tomorrow, in Matthew 5:20-26.)
Death is inaction. Life is action. Christ fulfilled the law, and what was once dead is now alive. Let the Spirit help us proclaim this fulfillment, growing constantly beyond minds thinking merely of what we shall not do to avoid breaking the letter, toward hearts thinking of what we shall do to love the Lord and our neighbors!
