Daily Retreat 06/14/06

2006 Jun 14 Wed: Ordinary Weekday

1 Kgs 18: 20-39/ Ps 15(16): 1b-2ab. 4. 5ab and 8. 11/ Mt 5: 17-19

From today’s readings: "The LORD’s fire came down and consumed the burnt offering, wood, stones, and dust, and it lapped up the water in the trench.... Keep me safe, O God - You are my hope.... Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill!"

 

The OT fulfilled in the NT

 

The idea still re-surfaces every once in awhile that in the New Testament, Jesus revealed God to be loving and merciful and tolerant, and this new image of God was intended to forever dismiss the Old Testament view of God as a legalistic "Big Meany."

 

That idea, however, is not just inaccurate - it’s quite heretical (it even has a name, "Marcionism," after the second century heretic Marcion who first taught this)! Jesus Himself took exception to that fallacy when He asserted, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come, not to abolish, but to fulfill!" At the time of Jesus, the phrase "the Law and the Prophets" was the most common way to collectively refer to the Old Testament scriptures, so it’s quite clear that Jesus did not reject Old Testament revelation.

 

The Gospel readings of the next few days will offer a sampling of moral cases which were first addressed in the Old Testament, but then addressed by Jesus, not in abrogation, but as the New Testament fulfillment of the Law and Prophets.

Fr. Rory Pitstick
Our Lady of the Valley Parish
2511 N. Elmway
Okanogan WA 98840 USA
(509) 422-5049

"Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui." John 3:30

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