Today, in Catholic tradition, the celebration of the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord is celebrated. Circumcision is not just the initiation into the Old Covenant - it was submission to the Law. Our Lord, through His parents, submitted Himself to the Law. From many who do not understand Judaism and/or Catholicism we find them complaining about too many rules - which in itself should be a sign that they are looking for the "easy path" which is NOT the path to Heaven! [Matt 7:13]. What we, as True Christians, should be doing is LOVING the Law, embracing it! Obedience to God is loving God! Is it a sign of love to whine and complain about someone?
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul. with all your strength, with all your mind. Luke 10:27
God gave us the Decalogue, or as more commonly known, The Ten Commandments. Ten great commandments to follow and adhere to. Before this though, He commanded that each male child be circumcised in order to be part of the Covenant (Old Covenant) with Him. Moses records this for us in the story of Abraham (Genesis 17:11) along with the other Laws of Moses, the Mitzvot, which contains 613 laws every Jew is expected to adhere to. Jesus confirms that all these can be summed up in just two laws: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind: and thy neighbour as thyself." (Again, Luke 10:27 ff). So really, these two encompass all other laws - does that mean we ignore all the other laws? By no means! Where would the love be in that?! When God says to keep holy the Sabbath Day, and that command is not specifically mentioned in Luke 10:27 - does that mean we don't have to keep a day holy for the Lord? No! We still MUST keep that one day set aside as holy for the Lord. For Christians, that day was moved from Saturday to Sunday, as a celebration of the Resurrection (every Sunday is like a "little Easter"). This authority to move that day was granted by our Lord in Matthew 18:18 (as well as in Matthew 16:18-19) in that "whatsoever you shall bind on earth is also bound in heaven" gives this authority to His Church. Therefore, the "Sunday obligation" is not something we should ignore or scoff at - it is "the law" and if we truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and all our mind - we cannot turn our back on this obligation - and if we're in the right frame of mind, we should actually LOVE to keep the Sunday obligation and the whole day as holy for the Lord!
Jesus Himself Yields to The Law
As God, Jesus did not have to yield to the Mosaic Law, but He willingly does. Why? Because He demonstrates what True Love is all about in ALL He did. True Love includes obedience to valid authority.
Qui Locutus - Formerly The CathApol Blog - a Catholic Apologetics Blog Defending the Faith and keeping Catholics Catholic! Scott Windsor, MEd. - aka: CathApol
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