Mt 5,17-19 – Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent
«Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish, but to fulfil.” Jesus pronounces these words at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, as if to immediately clarify a possible misunderstanding. His preaching was so new, so surprisingthat many might have thought that He wanted to erase everything that had come before: the Law of Moses, the tradition of the prophets, the entire spiritual heritage of Israel.
All the logic of mercy and love that Jesus announces is not in opposition to the Law and the Prophets; rather, it is the correct interpretation. The problem arises when the law is experienced only as a set of external rules, as a system of obligations to be respected without understanding their meaning. In that case the law becomes heavy, almost oppressive. But Jesus does not eliminate the law: he brings it back to his heart. And the heart of the law is love. In fact, there is a great illusion that often runs through our lives: that of thinking that true freedom consists in the absence of rules. We are tempted to believe that to be happy we must free ourselves from all limitsof each embankment.
But this is a superficial idea of freedom. Freedom without direction easily becomes confusion. Let’s think, for example, about love. A love that knows no rules, no responsibility, no limits, is not a more authentic love: it is simply an unruly love. And that that is unruly, sooner or later, ends up hurting. Without direction, even the best feelings can turn into something that hurts. Jesus certainly announces love and mercy, but he is not naive. He knows that love needs a form, a truth, a path. For this reason he does not abolish the Law and the Prophets, but fulfills them. He brings them to their full meaning.
The law is no longer just an external norm; it becomes a way to learn to love in the right way. True conversion, then, does not consist in freeing ourselves from the law as if it were an unnecessary burdenbut in understanding its profound meaning. Not by transforming it into a rigid moralism, but by letting it become a guide for life. Precisely in this Jesus is a true Master.
