A LAW THAT DOES NOT HUMANIZE IT SHOULDN’T HAVE BECOME LAW

A reflection from Mark 12, 28-34 

          According to the Scriptures God has a particular relationship with the people of Israel. He establishes a covenant with this people giving some guidelines so that they may walk safely, preserving life. It is in this context that the Commandments are born. The word Commandment or Law here has not the same connotation as it has today. More than obligatoriness it is essentiality. To live the commandments has become essential in the journey of the people of Israel to which the Law is God's Word or vice versa. When they state that “the law of the Lord is perfect, comfort for the soul”, they are referring to the Word. There is a deep correlation between Law and Word, because the commandments of the Law express the loving care of God who speaks, pointing paths of liberation and then reveal also the true identity of a people who obey, cultivating the sense of belonging to his God. The obedience to the commandments is the source of blessings that leads to life, while the disobedience to these leads to death.

          Around the principal law, the Jews have made to appear so many laws that gradually shifted the focus from what was essential. The initials Ten Commandments became 613, of which 248 are prescriptions and the 365 are prohibitions.  The poor were considered sinners because they could not memorize all these commandments and therefore they didn’t practice them. However, this sector of the population knew and cultivated the essence of the Law. That's what Jesus calls attention when he says: “you must love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind and with all thy strength” (Deuteronomy 6: 4-5) “and thy neighbor as to yourself “(Lev. 19, 18). To Love God is the first of all the commandments, but Jesus connected it with the love to the neighbor, showing that it is not possible to love God without loving the neighbor. James in his letter calls of liar the one who says that loves God and doesn’t love neighbor. From commandment of loving God flows the love to the neighbor, as a result. The source is always God, because was he who first loved us. It is from the love that God has for us – in a free and generous way - that is possible to love others selflessly. “This is a challenge for all the cultures including those in Africa, where the loyalty to family and traditions is often grown as the first commandment.” (African Bible, p. 1770).

        But for Jesus remains the essential: to love God, loving also the neighbor. His admirable pedagogy allowed that these two commandments would become even more accessible, asking only that we should love one another as he loved us. Just as God has loved us in Christ, we must love from Christ. Who loves in this way understood the essential of the life. Whoever follows Jesus does not follow a law or a doctrine but a person. In our society and community we are subjects of laws, but we cannot become slaves of them. Matured and balanced people understand that what counts most is not the law itself, but the spirit that motivates the law and the posture assumed before it. From there we believe that every law should have as aim to humanize the people. If there is a law that does not humanize it shouldn’t have become law. The law is emptied of its true meaning when only serves to oppress, favoring privileges and interests of somebody. The challenge for us today is to make of every law instrument of fraternity, in that the love of God and the love neighbor are increasingly evidenced.

Pe. Degaaxé

Revision: Brother Cipriano