Getting to know about ‘epikeia’

IT’S a term we have to be familiar with, since we cannot avoid its use in some occasions when the letter of the law cannot cope with the reality on the ground. It’s a Greek term that means reasonableness or suitability. 

 We are reminded of this phenomenon in that gospel episode where Christ again was accused by some leading Jews of violating the Sabbath law because he cured a man of his dropsy on the Sabbath. (cfr. Lk 14,1-6) 

 But Christ justified his action by saying: “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath or not?...Who among you, if your son or ox falls into cistern, would not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” With these words, the leading Jews were silenced. 

 Yes, there are times when we have to go beyond the law in its literal sense, without contradicting the spirit behind that law. This is what the practice of ‘epikeia’ means. A Catholic dictionary defines it in this way: 

 “A liberal interpretation of law in instances not provided by the letter of the law. It presupposes sincerity in wanting to observe the law, and interprets the mind of the lawgiver in supplying his presumed intent to include a situation that is not covered by the law. It favors the liberty of the interpreter without contradicting the express will of the lawgiver.” 

 It’s obvious that we need laws. We should respect and follow them as faithfully as possible as long as they are just laws. But we have to understand that laws, which in the end come from God, are formulated and articulated by us and therefore are subject to varying human conditions, such as the prevailing culture at the time the laws were made, etc. It’s for this reason why some exceptions can be made in obeying these laws literally. 

 We have to be wary of a certain tendency to absolutize our laws as if they are the ultimate purpose in our life. They can be so rigidly and indiscriminatingly applied to all cases when there can be exceptions or even exemptions that can be made. We fall into some kind of legalism. We have to realize that our human laws have certain limitations. They cannot fully capture all conditions of men. 

 The prudent practice of ‘epikeia’ can only take place when we truly have the spirit of Christ who embodies the ultimate spirit of justice that always goes together with truth, charity and mercy. 

 More than that, Christ shows us that perfect justice can never be achieved here on earth, given our wounded human condition. It can only be achieved in a supernatural way, the way Christ achieved our salvation through his passion, death and resurrection, which in the end is not just a purely human act, but mainly a divine, supernatural act. 

 We need to understand then that Christ is the fulfillment of our laws. Laws made, interpreted and applied without Christ as the principle, end and spirit, would lead us sooner or later to some forms of injustice. We would not know how to practice ‘epikeia’ on those occasions when it is applicable. 

 We really should strengthen our relation with Christ, with God, because that is what is proper to us as we go through all the aspects of our life—personal, social, professional, legal, etc. Without Christ, we would be at the mercy of all kinds of evil predators, some of whom can be very subtle and tricky.

The Good News about death

ON the Commemoration of the All the Faithful Depart, or All Souls’ Day, celebrated on November 2, we are reminded of these very reassuring words of Christ: “Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.” (Jn 6,37-38) 

 He further said to clarify things even more: “And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” (Jn 6,39-40) 

 I believe it is most worthwhile to meditate on these words often to convince ourselves that we should never be afraid of death because as long as we believe in Christ, we are assured of eternal life, of achieving the ultimate and definitive dignity of ours as God’s image and likeness, children of his, sharers of his divine life and nature. 

 If our faith is strong in these words of Christ, we know that death is actually a most welcome event because it represents our salvation, our liberation from exile and alienation from God. Death would mean that we have successfully passed the test God has given us in this earthly life of ours. 

 That is why, the saints were never afraid of death. In fact, they would look forward to it, irrespective of whether death came through natural causes or through martyrdom or accident, etc. 

 The secret, of course, of converting our death as a way to our liberation and salvation is to die with Christ. Only with him can our resurrection, our victory over sin and death, take place after our death. St. Paul encapsulated this most wonderful truth of our faith when he said, “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom 6,5) 

 No wonder then that Christ culminated his redemptive work with his passion and death on the cross which provided the ransom for all our sins. Only then would his own resurrection take place. Christ made this point clear when after being rightly identified by Peter as ‘the Christ of God,’ he proceeded to talk about his passion, death and resurrection. 

 “The Son of Man must suffer greatly,” he said, “and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” (Lk 9,22) 

 We have to deepen our belief that with Christ’s resurrection, sin and death have been definitively conquered, and a new life in God is made available to us. We are now a new creation, with the power of Christ to conquer sin and death and everything else that stands in the way of our becoming true children of God. 

 And so, we have every reason to think that we can live forever in Christ over whom death no longer has dominion. In spite of whatever, we have every reason to be happy and confident, as long as we are faithful to Christ. 

 We just need to realize more deeply that Christ is alive and wants to live his life with us, because we are patterned after him. Let us not miss this most golden opportunity.

To be a saint requires a miracle

ON the Solemnity of All Saints, celebrated on November 1, we are reminded that we all are actually called to become saints for the simple reason that we are meant to be God’s image and likeness, sharers of his life and of his nature as God wants us to be. To be a saint is to be God-like. 

 That is why Christ always compared us to God. “You are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,” he said. (Mt 5,48) On another occasion, he said, “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.” (Lk 6,36) 

 Reiterating the same idea, St. Peter said, “You must be holy in everything you do, just as God is holy.” (1 Pt 1,15) St. Paul, for his part, said, “This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thes 4,3) 

 But for us to become saints, as we should, we need God’s grace. We cannot achieve that simply using our human powers, even if we are expected to use them to the full. And this means that somehow a miracle must happen for us to become saints. 

 This is where we have to ask for that miracle. And that miracle can only take place if we have deep faith. Like those characters in the gospel who begged Christ for the miraculous cure of their ailments, the miracle took place because of their faith. In all those miracles, Christ commended those who received their miraculous cure for their faith. 

 Yes, faith is needed for miracles to happen. We have to be clear about this point. For miracles to happen, especially the most important one which is for us to become saints, to become God-like as we should, faith is needed. This was dramatized in that gospel episode where Christ was presented with a paralytic lying on a stretcher. 

 “When Jesus saw their faith,” the gospel narrates, “he said to the paralytic, ‘Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.’” Christ said this before he went to cure the man of his paralysis. He cured the man precisely because of their faith, that is, their belief that Christ was truly the expected Redeemer. 

 Nowadays, many people claim that miracles do not happen anymore. They say miracles only took place in the distant past, the time of the gospel when Christ went around in the land of Judea and Galilee. But now, miracles are considered obsolete, if not an anomaly. 

 This is like saying that Christ, the son of God who became man, has ceased intervening in our lives, that he was purely a historical man, subject to time and space, and that after death, he is simply no more, completely wrapped in the spiritual world, if ever that exists, and that he has no immediate and tangible impact on our lives. 

 We have to be clear about this point. Christ is always around and is actively intervening in our lives, directing and leading us to our proper end, in spite of our very erratic ways. He can never be indifferent to us, and is willing to suffer and die for us just to save us. Precisely he came as an expiation for our sins. He is the one who pays for our sins. All we have to do is just to try to go along with him in the best way we can. 

 What we have to do is to feel that we are helpless without God’s grace, without begging for a miracle for us to become real saints!