February 12, 2023

To fulfil not abolish

Whenever Jesus’ says “You heard it said…” followed by “But I…” — its easy to assume he is replacing something old and outdated with something new and exciting. But that is never the case. At no point did Jesus erase or discount or abolish the revelation that went before. He only fulfilled it, deepened it and made its meaning more obvious to us. Our Saviour was in the business of healthy development of faith, of holy continuation. He was never in the business of total innovation leading to impossible contradiction. 

This point is especially important for us modern Christians. Why? Because we are living out the faith in an anti-Christian age when many who call themselves Christian are nevertheless attempting, heretically I should add, to update Christianity for a more secular age and way of thinking. Instead of conforming the world to Christ they pathetically attempt to conform Christianity to the world. A less controversial move. A more populist position. But it is a grave threat and a serious problem to true and living faith because it leads invetiably to apostasy- the falling away from true faith. 

Understand then many today claim Christian credentials but hunger for apostasy. They want us to shelve, to ignore the plain meaning of scripture and two thousand years of tradition and doctrine to appease the culture and embrace something new. And that is why the Church of England’s General Synod voted only this week to abandon normative Christian teaching on marriage and family life to enable their clergy to offer blessings to sexual unions outside of marriage. 

Now we might sympathise here with the pastoral intention. We can understand why Christians might want to reach out to people of same sex attraction. But whilst it is noble to ensure such people know they are loved by God- we must be careful not to offer to give to people what we do not in fact possess. Understand that man has no blessing to impart. If people say ‘Father give me your blessing’ I always reply “no! I have none to offer’ Nor does the pope, or a bishop or any other cleric. We are just men in the service of the one who can impart blessing – the true and living God. Which is to state we are but the trumpets- he alone is the trumpeter. And he rules not us. It is for him to decide where the divine blessing goes- it is not for us to say.  

So the real question for Anglicans is this. By what authority do you claim to be able to do this? That is the real question. The answer is manifestly not scripture- for every single verse that speaks of such unions is negative and claims it as sin. It is not tradition or historic doctrine- for again the teaching of the Church in all ages is that the natural law matters and that marriage is between one man and one woman for the safeguarding and nurturing of children. So by what authority do you claim to offer God’s blessing? Or is it, as I fear, only your own human blessing and approval on offer? 

Well don’t go to them for the answer because their synod revealed nobody is really bothering with the serious theology or ecumenical implications. And before we get too comfortable pointing fingers at Anglicans understand many within our own Church would happily mimic them in this. Belgian bishops have already written a liturgy and German prelates are pushing hard for this at the forthcoming synod. It seems modernist arguments are alive and well in both communions and, it must be said, especially amongst the generation currently occupying the hierarchy formed as they were in the wake of the sexual revolution whose thinking it is that is triumphing over the Gospel in all of their arguments. 

Well let us not be drawn into political church culture wars. Let us simply ask the million dollar question. What does Jesus have to say? And in this morning’s Gospel reading we learn he definitively ruled out putting lines through bits of scripture and doctrine you do not much fancy. Hence he said “I came not to abolish but to fulfil the law.” Hence he insisted ‘Not one dot or iota is to be changed.’ So that is the first lesson- Jesus was against re-writing the deposit of faith. 

The other lesson for us today is seen in how we insisted that the traditional Jewish teachings needed to be intensified and extended into our interior life. Note that fact -Jesus pushed for firmer adherence to the teaching of the faith not to watering it down to appease the world. Which is to say his voice was the polar opposite of that greasy synodal desire to do the will of the culture and ignore what God revealed to us. 

Jesus said it is not enough simply to avoid murder. The important thing is to cultivate a heart of love in which even the desire for violence becomes anathema. Here is the call to make the interior life the foundation of living faith – not simply the keeping of a set of rules. Ticking the box of the ten commandments was not enough – that way lies rigid Pharasaical religiosity. It leads to unhealthy religion -we might think of a fussy server or priest who tends the altar meticulously, ensuring even the thumbs are crossed the right way…but who later that night slips into a seedy club and behaves very badly.  

Jesus’ makes clear avoiding adultery is not enough if you are privately a pervert. Nor is it good enough avoiding murder if you seethe with rage and hatred within. In other words outward appearance counts for nothing with God. Our faith must permeate our entire being- must transform hearts and lives leading to a sincere relationship with God otherwise it all counts for nothing. Jesus connects the dots from outward act to internal orientation. It is one thing to behave right. It is another to be holy. 

This need for interior organic conversion is crucial. And it might help us understand why so many Christians are capitulating to the world in our day. See people think we behave according to what we believe but actually it is the other way round. Humans always end up believing in the way they choose to behave. A good example can be seen in church life itself. If people are encouraged to genuflect as the sacrament passes, to keep silence in the sanctuary out of respect, to kneel for communion and receive on the tongue- they end up with a much stronger belief in the real presence than if communion is taken standing and with little reverence in the liturgy. 

Which makes me wonder if Christians are falling into apostasy because long ago they stopped working on their interior life. Via dumbed down liturgy and poor catechesis many have just gone through the motions and habit of institutional church going whilst slowly conceding in private to secular lifestyles and rhetoric. And that is why we now find them quite devoid of theology, obviously unhappy with the true teachings of the faith and therefore hungry to create a bastardised form of Christianity more in vogue with environmentalism, rainbow lanyards and identity politics than the actual teachings of Christ. They still identify as Christian but their beliefs and behaviours are in thrall to the Spirit of the Age. 

Let me end by stating that Christians do, of course, need a faith that is able to develop and confront the modern world. Mgr Nazir Ali made that point so powerfully in his recent lecture here. But he also wisely insisted that any progression of the Church needs to be in keeping with all that went before. We must move as one because we are Catholic and we cannot move in directions that cause impossible tension with the teaching of the faith in all ages. God doesn’t do U-turns. As the bible teaches he is the same yesterday, today and forever. 

So we need to respect scripture and tradition and not change one dot or iota. That is if we are to remain faithful to Christ and not simply concede to the world. Jesus Christ came not to abolish but to fulfil. And in our own walk with Christ we too must take up the challenge seeking to be about fulfilment and not abolishment of God’s word too. 

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