“Jesus said to his disciples: "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (Matthew 5:17)
The major theme for this 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time focuses on the meanings and significances of God’s Laws (the Torah) and challenges us to choose freely and wisely to observe them. They are given by a loving and caring God who has revealed them to His chosen people through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament, and through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, in the New Testament.
The Torah for the Israelites is not only a set of laws, the disciplines concerning the custom, practice and rules of the Jewish community aimed to promote order and harmony within the society and protect the rights of its citizens, but also the instructions, teachings intended to promote the holiness and wholeness of each believer with whom God has made His covenant, caring and helping the person to listen, live, keep, and express his/her faith in God.
The Torah means the "instructions or teachings" is the central concept in the Judaic tradition. It has a range of meanings: (1) the first five books of the Tanakh, (2) this plus the rabbinic commentaries on it, (3) the continued narrative from Genesis to the end of the Tanakh, and (4) the totality of Jewish teachings and practices.
Common to all these meanings, the Torah consists of the foundational narrative of the Jewish people: (1) their call into being by God, (2) their trials and tribulations, and (3) their covenant with God, which involves following a way of life embodied in a set of religious obligations and civil laws (halakha).
God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to choose freely and wisely to observe and fulfill God’s Laws the Torah, especially in Ordinary Time, to imitate and follow our savior Jesus Christ, to repent our sins, to exercise our Christian stewardship, to use our time, treasure, and talents to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves, participating in the works of mercy, to accomplish God’s will in our lives to glorify God.
How can we genuinely appreciate and fulfill God’s Laws the Torah in our Christian discipleship?
Wishing you a very happy and blessed week in the Lord.