Old Law, New Law

THE Catechism of the Catholic Church has a section that talks about the Old Law and the New Law. It’s an interesting section that, to me, deserves to be known by everyone. 

                For sure, that section, which is located in the division about Christian morality, is not simply meant to be theoretical. It precisely is meant to guide us in our behavior and actuations, which is what morality is all about. 

                And morality should be a grave concern for all of us, since our behavior and actuations can either build up or destroy our humanity and Christianity. Our human acts, or those free acts we do for which we are responsible, can either enhance or harm our dignity.

                That section about the Old Law and the New Law is therefore meant to be practical, to help us see the path toward our true human development and Christian perfection, our authentic joy and fulfillment.

                It offers us fundamental information meant to form in us the proper attitudes and the accompanying skills, virtues and practices we need to affirm our human and Christian identity in our actions or in the whole of our moral life.

                We have to remember that since we are intelligent and free beings precisely because we have been created in the image and likeness of God, we are the only creatures, aside from the angels, who can either build up our nature or destroy it. In the other creatures, this concern about affirming or violating their nature is irrelevant.

                There is an over-all law that governs all creatures. There is first the eternal law of God who creates and governs everything both in time and in eternity. Every creature has part of this law in him. This is called the natural law. 

                But in our case, this natural law, while written in our heart, is something that we can be aware of, precisely because of how we are—that we are intelligent and free beings. We can know it by our reason, and because of our free will, we can either follow it or go against it. Our natural law is more properly called natural moral law.

                Now, given our wounded nature that affects our capacity to know the natural law entirely and correctly, our Christian faith tells us that this natural moral law needed to be articulated in an explicit way. This is where the Old Law comes in.

                The Old Law refers to the Ten Commandments. It is the law revealed to us through Moses, addressed first to the Chosen People (the Israelites) but actually meant for all of us. It has a universal scope. It’s not only for some. It’s for all. It’s not only for some period of time. It’s for all time.

                It articulates the way we should be, how we should act, what we can do and what we should not do, what is good and what is evil for us. It precisely spells out our nature insofar as our behavior and actuations are concerned.

                But it does not tell us what we can do if we happen to violate our nature. It has no corrective dimension. It does not tell us how our attitude should be and how to suffer meaningfully the consequences of our transgressions against our nature.

                This is where the New Law comes in. It offers us the way to recover and even to enhance our dignity as persons and children of God to a level higher than the original. It is the law of our Christian perfection through our redemption. It has the power to forgive sins and to suffer sins’ consequences gainfully.

                It is articulated in many ways. One is the new commandment Christ told his disciples: “Love one another as I have loved you.” But this love is more articulated in the Sermon of the Mount where we are told about the beatitudes and about our duty to love even our enemies, to be willing to offer the other cheek if we are slapped in one, etc.

                The New Law is actually about having a living unity with Christ who is “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” for us. No one goes to the Father, he said, except through him. And so we have to understand that the New Law embraces everything that Christ taught us to do, and to make use of everything that he left us with—the Church, the sacraments, the doctrine of our faith, etc.

                But the New Law does not do away with the Old Law. The New stands on the Old.

The problem with humility

WE can never have enough of it. That’s the problem with humility. The moment we say we have it, be ready also to lose it and again and again to go through the process of recovering it. It’s a very slippery virtue that requires constant interior renewal and conversion.

            If we only can reconcile ourselves completely with this reality and act accordingly, then much of the problem of the world will just vanish! But that’s a big if. Just the same, no matter how quixotic the pursuit of this virtue may be, we just have to try and try, helping one another to live it, because it is indispensable in our life.

            Humility makes us see the truth. It wipes away fantasies, illusions and delusions. It is the foundation of many other virtues, the good ground on which the seed of virtues can grow. Without it, good intentions cannot prosper, and what may begin as a good deed would soon turn into an evil one, dripping with malice.

            Humility makes us see who we really are, in our most radical self. That is to say, it makes us realize we are first of all creatures of God who created us in his image and likeness and who has adopted us with his grace as his children.

            Its opposite vice of pride precisely makes us forget this fundamental truth, and leads us to think that we are our own God. This was precisely the seemingly irresistible temptation that led to the downfall of our first parents while in Paradise and that caused the original sin that we now all inherit.

            Humility is of such great value that one saint said that one simple act of humility is worth much more than all the knowledge, both theoretical and practical, that we can amass in this world.

            To develop and nourish this virtue, we need to realize that our heart and mind are in constant flux. Its stability is never static but rather very dynamic. It can turn one way or another in just an instant, and in fact it can go to extremes.

            We need to realize that our control of these powers of ours, which need to be properly grounded and directed, is at best tenuous. And thus we have to constantly be watchful and at the same time proactive in developing this virtue, never waiting for occasions to come before we do something about it.

            Let’s remember that among the consequences of sin, both original and personal, is the pride of life. It’s just kind of automatic for us to be proud, so much so that another saint once said that pride is so ingrained in us that it would only disappear 24 hours after our death.

            That could be the reason why Christ had to be born in such a humbling manner as to be born in a manger, and to live in a very austere manner in direct contrast to what he rightfully deserves as God.

            In fact, he taught his disciples to be humble. “Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart,” he once said (Mt 11,29). And among the beatitudes, he highlighted the virtue of meekness and humility. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the land.” (Mt 5,4)

            Christ told the people to avoid going to the seats of honor when invited to a banquet, because he who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

            And when throwing a party, he advised that we should rather invite the poor, blind and lame, and those who cannot repay the goodness, because we should be more interested in the reward we get in heaven than the one we can get here on earth.

            He did not stop at nice words. He lived it by washing the feet of his apostles and commanding them to do the same to one another. Finally, he offered to give up his life on the cross for our sins. This is the ultimate of humility when it becomes entirely identified with Christ’s supreme act of love for us.

            So, we just have to continually practice and develop humility by obeying, doing acts of service, being generous with our self-giving while passing unnoticed, always thinking of the others as better than us, as suggested by St. Paul (cfr Phil 2,3), always patient, merciful, taking the initiative to reconcile, etc.

            If we can only do these things, I really believe that the world would be a much better place to live. What do you think?

Scouting is most relevant today

THIS may sound a bit childish, but it’s true—scouting is still most
relevant today. Its motto of “Be prepared” is an ideal that has to be
pursued by everyone. Not only the small boys and girls, but also and
especially the old ones, harried already by life’s many trials and
challenges, should be most concerned to live by it.

    Its call for us to be “physically strong, mentally awake, and morally
straight” continues to ring with urgency. That’s because many now are
the factors and conditions that tend to make us physically soft and
weak, mentally asleep or lethargic, and morally askew.

    Many of us now lead a sedentary life. Even the young ones, who are
supposed to be out there doing all sorts of things, are becoming couch
potatoes, hooked to TV and the internet, and hardening in their
self-absorption.

    With such predicament, it’s not hard to imagine the kind of
consequences that can follow. Idleness and self-centeredness lead to
moral aberrations, starting with the hidden and personal ones, and
later on, becoming more visible and social and even cultural.

    Learning from the parable of the ten virgins, five of whom were
foolish and the five sensible (cfr Mt 25,1-13), we need to put a stop
to this, and be quick to recognize the many signs that point to this
danger.

    Reading the signs of the times is, in fact, now an indispensable
component in our abiding duty to be watchful and prudent in life. It
makes us see things behind the appearances, trying to figure out the
causes and conditions that bring about certain situations.

It also gives us an idea of the direction and trend these situations
are heading. We should not just be reactive, but also proactive. We
should not just blindly flow with the tide, but rather be discerning,
anticipative and capable of directing the course of events.

For this, we can always rely on our common sense and the rich and
growing contributions from the ever-evolving human sciences and arts.
Thanks to God, with our modern technologies, these scientific and
artistic inputs are now very accessible to us.

But we need to realize that the ultimate guide for us to read the
signs of the times properly is our Christian faith. Coming from God,
revealed in full in Christ and now authoritatively and vitally
articulated and taught in the Church, our faith holds the final say on
what is right and wrong in things, what is good and evil.

Our faith is the ultimate oil that keeps the light we need in our
earthly journey toward our definitive destination beyond death. It is
what gives the proper meaning, value and place to everything that we
have to deal with in this life. It is what brings us to heaven.

It is the faith that gives us a sense of transcendence, reminding us
that our life is not just earthly but also has a celestial end, not
just material and temporal but also spiritual and eternal, not just
mundane but also sacred, not just natural but also supernatural. Too
often, our problem is that our vision is life is narrow, shallow and
short-sighted.

    The prudential act of the five sensible virgins of bringing oil for
their journey to meet the groom can be understood as our duty to study
the doctrine of our faith thoroughly, making it flesh of our flesh,
and the criteria by which we see and assess persons and events in our
life.

    It’s a pity that many of us still take our Christian faith very
lightly. Some have even gone to the extent of rejecting it,
considering it as irrelevant, impractical or impracticable. Others are
ashamed to show and much less defend their faith in public.

    We need to correct this anomaly. It is not, of course, a matter of
being triumphalistic about our faith. If we have to follow Christ, we
would know how to live it also with naturalness, without behaving is a
strange way.

    But, yes, we have to be thoroughly consistent with it, whether in
season or out of season. Like the five sensible virgins, they just
brought oil even if in the end it may not be needed.

    This is what the scouting motto of “Be prepared” is all about. It’s
about being ready for any eventuality, looking ahead and equipping
ourselves accordingly.

    May this skill and art of reading the signs of the times be an
integral part of our life of preparedness. It is most needed these
days and. in fact, always.