Do you ever think that you are above the law? That you can drive as fast as we want, as recklessly as you want, or take whatever you want? Do you ever feel that the law just… does… not… pertain to you? The vast majority of us don’t.
But every time we sin – we are telling God the we are above Him, that we are above the Law. We are no different than those that put Baal before the Lord in the first reading for today. Anything that we put before God is a false idol. A false god.
And we humans do it often. We do it every day. Every day, in some way, we tell God that we are above Him. We’ve been doing it since the beginning. God’s Law is perfect in every way, but there is no way that we can live up to it.
And He knows this. God is not above the Law either, but rather He is the Law. And because we could not live up to it, because we sin and fail, only He could save us. He had to send Himself, not to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.
But, what does that mean?
God is the Law of the universe, the Law of love and justice. There is only one Law and it is Him. Therefore, when we break the Law, we are separated from Him. Our connection is broken. We could never restore that connection.
It’s like a powerline to my house. Where I live, our powerlines are underground. I know where they run generally. And so, if I go digging in my yard for whatever reason, and even though I know something could be there, I don’t call the utility before I dig. And then I cut the powerline in the process, not only will I receive a jolt, but my house will be out of power.
I knew something was there. I knew I should have not dug on my own. But I did it anyway because I felt I knew better. They would put it deeper than this, right? Wrong. Here I am – the lights are off. No air conditioning. No internet. No means to cook food. It would be really uncomfortable.
I felt I knew better. I felt I was above the law.
Sure, I could still survive. But life would be much more difficult. Now, I could go out there and try to reconnect the line. But I would hurt myself even more, because I don’t know how to repair a powerline. I would need to call the power company, the experts, so they could come out to my house and repair and restore my connection.
The very one providing the electricity to me is the only one who can fix it when it is broken. They are the only one that can turn the lights back on.
The power company doesn’t come out and just say, ok, it will fix itself. They don’t come out and expect me to fix it, or to even teach me how to fix it. They know I can’t. Even though I did something stupid and idiotic and selfish – they just do their job, and fix my mistake for me.
All I had to do was call them, ask for help, and they come out and fix it. And sure, I will have to pay for it one way or another, but they fix it. They restore the connection. They restore the light.
People, we dig through and sever our line to God all the time. We break the connection. The lights go out. Life gets uncomfortable. This is how it has been from the very beginning.
But He didn’t just expect us to fix ourselves, to fix our sins, to restore that union with Him and His Law. He didn’t come to remove the Law and give us a pass. But He sent His Son Jesus to fix the connection. Despite our selfishness, our mistakes and our bad choices, He sent His Son to fulfill the Law, to restore the connection, to bring back the Light.
God is the Law. When we are in Communion with Him, we are part of the Law. He can’t just abolish it, because it is Everything!
And so, when we place ourselves before Him, above Him, when we cut the line – all we need is Him, to invite Him into our hearts, and fix it.
