Wednesday of the Third week in Lent
Matthew 5:17-19
“Do not think that I have come to loosen the law or the prophets.”
ex Wikimedia Commons
Do not think that I have come to loosen the law or the prophets. I have not come to loosen, but to fulfill. Amen I say to you, certainly, until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota, not one dot shall pass away from the law, until all is done.
Therefore, whoever will have loosened one of the least of these commandments, and have taught men so, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever will have done and taught these, such a one shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
What do the Fathers say?
The School of Laon.(Glossa Ordinaria). Having now exhorted His hearers to undergo all things for righteousness’ sake, and also not to hide what they should receive, but to learn more so that they may teach others, He now goes on to tell them what they should teach
As though He had been asked, ‘What is this which you would not have hid, and for which you would have all things endured? Are you about to speak any thing beyond what is written in the Law and the Prophets;’ Hence He says, Think not that I am come to subvert the Law or the Prophets.
PSEUDO-CHRYSOSTOM. And that for two reasons. First, that by these words He might admonish His disciples, that as He fulfilled the Law, so they should strive to fulfil it. Secondly, because the Jews would falsely accuse them of subverting the Law, therefore he answers the calumny beforehand, but in such a manner as that He should not be thought to come simply to preach the Law as the Prophets had done.
But since all things which should happen from the very beginning of the world to the end of it, were in type and figure foreshown in the Law, that God may not be thought to be ignorant of any of those things that take place, He therefore here declares, that heaven and earth should not pass till all things thus foreshown in the Law should have their actual accomplishment.
St John CHRYSOSTOM. Christ then fulfilled the Prophets by accomplishing what was therein foretold concerning Himself—and the Law, first, by transgressing none of its precepts; secondly, by justifying by faith, which the Law could not do by the letter.
St AUGUSTINE. And lastly, because even for them who were under grace, it was hard in this mortal life to fulfil the requirement of the Law. He being made a Priest by the sacrifice of His flesh, obtained for us this indulgence, even in fulfilling the Law, that where we through our infirmity could not fulfill the Law, we should be strengthened through His perfection
For the Lord has showed us that even a wicked motion of the thoughts to the wrong of a brother is to be accounted a kind of murder. The Lord also teaches us, that it is better to keep near to the truth without swearing, than with a true oath to come near to blasphemy.