Happy New Year everyone on ACM. May you all have a very blessed 2022. And Happy Feast Day, Holy Mary, Mother of God. What better way to begin the New Year than to honor our Mother and the Mother of Our Lord.
Some of you may have seen a series of videos on Facebook called “Audit the Audit”. The videos focus on a potentially volatile segment of police work…the traffic stop. Many of the escalating interactions between police and the public often occur during traffic stops. In the Audit the Audit videos we are shown dashcam video footage from inside the vehicle and also, at times, video from the officer’s body camera. As events unfold, a narrator explains what is occurring and how the actions of the officer and the citizen are covered under various laws of the state and federal laws. In the process he explains how these laws may or may not apply in the situation and also how well each individual in the confrontation lived up to these often detailed laws and statutes. In the end the officer and the citizen are given grades for how well they complied with the laws and whether either should be disciplined as a consequence of the encounter. In a sense, their actions and how they are supported by law or not, back each into a narrow corner with little flexibility. The laws give detailed directions on how officers and the public are expected to conduct themselves in these circumstances. Once the confrontation begins, the laws become the guiding force to each participant’s behavior. The alternative would be to drive with common sense and respect for other drivers and officers. And for officers to give the benefit of the doubt to the driver, refraining from actions that escalate. This approach would require participants to have a measure of trust and faith in each other.
In today’s first reading God told Moses to speak to Aaron to give the Israelites a blessing as they prepared to live Mt. Sinai and continue their journey in the desert after leaving Egypt. This takes place after God has given the Law to Moses on Sinai. A set of specific rules that governed very detailed segments of the lives of the Israelites during their wanderings. In a sense God was treating them as children, incapable of making proper judgement on their own by engaging in behaviors that are consistent with the will of God. They were not being guided by faith but needed to be restricted within the bounds of the law acting as sort of guard rails as they traveled through life. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians in our second reading today, he illustrates why the law was necessary before Christ’s coming by giving the Galatians an example of an heir who is still a minor and not able to decide how to rule over the kingdom yet. So while still an heir they are treated as are slaves until they have matured and better able to make decisions based on their abilities and not restricted by the rules of childhood.
Paul was motivated to write to the Galatians regarding this topic because there were many who were trying to convince these Gentile Christians that they needed to also abide by the Jewish law regarding diet, clothing, worship, sacrifice, marriage, financial dealings, etc. In a sense they were being told by Jewish Christians that they had to return to the slavery of the law even though Christ showed them the Father’s will through Jesus’ passion, death and Resurrection. It was sort of like getting a PhD then being required to return to grade school. They had graduated to living in faith of what Christ promised if they only chose to love and forgive. They had to have faith that this was the Father’s will and not the 613 laws followed by their ancestors in the desert. Faith that we are “Sons of the Father”.
And in Luke’s Gospel we are told how the Shepherds delivered the message from the angels that this baby lying in a manger in Bethlehem is our Messiah and Savior. And the people were amazed. Some had faith and believed while others likely did not. Depending, instead, on the structure that the law offered.
What does this all mean to us as Catholics? We also have choices in whether we follow our faith, and its prime tenants, which I will call the Big T’s (Big Traditions). These include that Christ is God’s Son, who existed with God and is God, that He became man, died and rose again then ascended back to the Father to conquer death and pay the price for our sins. That we should be guided by love for each other and for God.
Or our main focus can be on the little T’s (Little Traditions). While these traditions help bind us together and give us identity as a community, they do not bind us to God’s will. Whether we stand, sit or kneel, whether we eat meat on Friday, which version of the bible we read, which sacramentals we espouse to. Not that these minor traditions are unimportant. They can give richness to our faith. But there is a danger that these become equivalent to what the Law was to the Israelites. A guide or crutch that as mature Christians we should no longer depend upon. Instead, listening to the Spirit within us guided by our faith in the Gospel.
“The multitude of your sacrifices— what are they to me?” says the LORD. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats…Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” (Isaiah 11:11,17)
We are not to ignore the laws of the Church or of Man but neither are we to depend on them. We are to depend on our faith. Put God first in our lives. Let His word be our guide. Through the Scriptures, through the Sacraments and through the Church. By being both hearers and doers of that Word.
