Means not ends

I’M referring to our human laws. No matter how well
crafted, they are not meant to be the end or the goal themselves, but
rather as means or a way to our ultimate goal who is God or our
eternal life with God.

            We are reminded of this point in the gospel of St. Mark
(2,23-28) where Christ clarified to some questioning people that the
law regarding the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the
Sabbath.

            This was occasioned when Christ and his apostles broke the
law on the Sabbath rest by picking some grain of wheat to eat, because
they were hungry. In the end, Christ told those who questioned him
that he, being the Son of Man, the Son of God who is the fullness of
God’s revelation to us, has the right to revise or even revoke a human
law when it is found to be irrelevant in a given situation.

            We have to be careful with our tendency to fall into what
is called as legalism, which is a way of making our human laws so
absolute as to regulate even matters of conscience that they become
the end in themselves. Legalism is when we make our human laws so
absolute that they cannot stand any more improvement, enrichment, or
even revision and revocation.

            Legalism is when we get too obsessed with following the
letter of the law at the expense of recognizing the true spirit of the
law. It is usually characterized by rigidity and heartless treatment
of people, especially those disadvantaged by a given law.

            This is not to say that our laws are useless. No. Laws are
always necessary and very useful. But they should be treated as means
only, not as ends. As such, they cannot be treated as if these laws
are the only laws that have to be followed. In a given situation or
case, other laws may be followed.

            We have to learn to be open-minded to other options that
may be different from ours. As long as these options are in keeping
with God’s natural and moral law, then they are valid and legitimate.

            This also means that these human laws can be reformed.
There should be a continuing effort by the authorized body of a given
society to make their laws adapt to the changing circumstances of
people and society.

            While we need to have laws and a whole legal and judicial
system to regulate our life in society, what we don’t need is
legalism, or the distortion and abuse of our man-made legal system.

            We are, of course, vulnerable to this predicament, since
man’s intelligence and free will can take tortuous turns that in the
end are determined by how our heart tilts—either toward God or is it
just stuck with our own selves?

            We need to see to it that our laws conform themselves as
faithfully as possible to God’s law. God, after all, being the
Creator, is the supreme lawgiver to whom all human lawmakers should
defer.