A loving mindset and the spirit of the law

A loving mindset and the spirit of the law
Helen Weber-McReynolds, RCWP
February 5, 2023
Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lev 19: 1-2, 11-18, 33-34; Ps 119; 1 Cor 2: 1-5; Mt 5: 21-30
 
           You may remember the famous baseball announcer, Red Barber, who called games over radio and television from 1934-1966, and was later featured weekly on National Public Radio on the Friday Morning Edition shows. He was born in Mississippi and was famous for bursting forth with homey Southern turns of phrase when there was an outstanding play or a tricky situation. He would say things like, “With 3 balls and no strikes on him, this batter is really sitting in the catbird seat.” Once he responded to an outstanding catch with, “Well, I’ll be a suck-egg mule.” In an interview, he once said that even he was amazed at some of the expressions that came out of his mouth, and found the prospect of saying something unplanned almost frightening at times. For that reason, he forbade himself from swearing, or using any kind of profanity, even silently, to himself.
He was a devout Episcopalian and explained that he was always careful to discipline himself to avoid foul language, even in his thoughts, because he did not want to have cursing pop out of his mouth unexpectedly. So he avoided even thinking about cursing.
           I think this is what Jesus is getting at in today’s Gospel. Of course we need to obey the letter of the law not to kill or steal, but we also need to follow the spirit of God’s law. We need to maintain a loving mindset to avoid responding with violence unexpectedly in anger. Imitating Jesus’ non-violent example requires the cultivation of understanding in our thoughts. It means training ourselves not to judge other people, but to put ourselves in the other person’s situation and think about their circumstances and motivations.
           In this Gospel, Jesus is expanding on the law of God as interpreted by his contemporaries, especially those in the employ of the local Roman government and in the Temple hierarchy. He was trying to re-emphasize that God’s law is to help and guide us in leading an ethical life. The word torah is the Hebrew word for teaching and direction for life and the one mostly used for the laws/principles which God has given us. So God’s law is to help teach us how to love one another better. The way the law is stated in today’s reading from Leviticus conveys this compassionate, instructive tone. Right at the beginning, we hear that God is giving us these laws so that we can be holy, as God is holy. The law is so that we can live in God’s circle of love and learn to expand it to include even the wayfarer and the  stranger, and even those with whom we have differences. Paul said the same thing, basically, in the second reading, when he said that wanted to teach his followers of God’s unlimited love, as exemplified by Jesus’ laying down his life, so that their faith may rest on the power of God, and not just on human wisdom. He wanted his followers to internalize the love of Jesus, and not worry about philosophical arguments or other parsing of law.
           Civil law is supposed to be similar, guidelines to help us all live peacefully together. But human selfishness has tended to corrupt the law over time, to pervert it into a “power over” structure of some groups controlling others. And instead of maintaining peace, the law tends to be enforced by violence. We saw another terrible example of that this week, with the brutal killing of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. It is difficult to know what motivated the men who beat Tyre. Were they carried away with the power they had been given to enforce the law and intent on maintaining that power for its own sake? Hopefully careful investigation will uncover the truth about what happened.
           For now, let us work at bringing God’s Realm of Love to reality here on earth, little by little, in our own relationships and situations. Father John Dear, who has written and worked so extensively on non-violence, gives us this advice:
      “We must carry on Jesus’ campaign of non-violence…. We do this through daily prayer and meditation, daily Gospel reading and regular communal worship. As servants and friends of Jesus, we live like him, speak like him, resist systemic injustice like him, and love humanity and Mother Earth like him. We stay centered in the God of peace, and live in the Spirit of God, and so walk the earth in universal love, compassion, and peace.”