SIXTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR
Commentators today can be utterly dismissive
about the Ireland of the 50’s. In fifty years time
they will, most likely speak condescendingly about
our time. Balance is needed. We shouldn’t look on
life as a battle between the past and the present. No
generation has all the answers, but every generation
has some of the answers. The past then should be a
stepping stone, not a millstone. The past is filled with
learning opportunities for our present and future.
As the African saying goes: ‘The young walk faster,
but it is the older folk who know the way’. Building
the future and keeping the past alive are one and
the same thing. Jesus had the utmost respect for the
Law of His ancestors, but His teaching moved His
hearers to a different level. The Law was given to help
people to love God with all their hearts and minds.
By Jesus’ time religious leaders had turned the Law
into a confusing mass of rules and regulations. Jesus
was actually trying to bring people back to the Law’s
original purpose. He sets before people not the Law
of God, but the love of God. We could say that the
Law of the Old Testament is the Gospel in bud. The
New Testament is the Gospel in full flower. (Fr. Peter Burke)
