Changing For The Better, Not To The Letter

2011 Sep 2, Friday: Friday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Colossians 1:15-20/Psalms 100:1, 2, 3, 4, 5/Luke 5:33-39

Jesus came teaching and doing miracles. The people were astonished at the "newness" of those teachings. Some were able to accept them. But others could not. For the Jews, the Torah, the document that contains the laws given through Moses, was the standard. In the Gospel, the people were asking why the disciples of Jesus were not following the fast. He responded by pointing out that the wedding guests do not fast while the bridegroom is with them. Jesus is the bridegroom, so they do not need to fast. Jesus was not really teaching something new or going against any law. He was actually fulfilling the law in its spirit. But since the law was given to Moses, it had developed and multiplied. In the process, the spirit was lost and the laws had not served as intended. In the words of Jesus.

The intention of the law as given by God was to help man towards salvation and not merely to do them even devoid of its spirit. Jesus pointed out their need to go back to the spirit of the law. There is no one who knows the law better than Him. Jesus wanted them to "change", not to something really new, but to go back to the original purpose of the law. The parable of the old and new cloth and the old and new wine skin illustrates the tension He was creating with the leaders. The "newness" He brings will challenge the "old" they hold.

Once, when I was still in formation, a new Rector came and immediately made a lot of changes in our seminary life. Obviously, many of us reacted. We felt that he should have settled for a while first before changes were made. But because he is the Rector, it was within his authority to do so. Because we trust him, we tried to adopt to the change. At that time, I was the beadle (seminarian head) of the community. One day, I just felt I have worked and studied too much that I really needed a break. After an afternoon class, I asked one of my classmates to play basketball in a court at the back of our building. It was already 4;30 pm and our schedule requires that we must be in by 5:30 pm to prepare for the evening prayers. We thought we can easily make it. Unfortunately we did not. We were so engrossed with our game that we lost track of the time. We finished at about 5:45 pm. way pass the required time we must be in. When we entered the seminary, the Rector was there standing and staring at me. When we were closer to him, he asked why I was not following schedules and added that I was setting a bad example to other seminarians being the head of the community. I just told him that I was very stressed and I felt that I needed to release them. I apologized to him for the extended game.

I did not feel guilty about what happened. I needed that release very much. Schedules are guides in order to get the best formation. Being healthy (sane?) and conditioned are parts of that formation. I fully respect the schedule. But I believe, the situation was more in fulfilling the spirit rather than a violation of the law.