Gospel passage: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.’”

The idea of fulfilling a law has special relevance to me as a Benedictine monk, who lives by a sort of law of life, the Rule of St. Benedict. What does it mean to fulfill this or any law?

We can speak of fulfilling the “letter of the law,” but a deeper, more meaningful way of fulfilling a law is by accomplishing its purpose. For example, if while driving, we swerve over the double yellow lines to avoid an accident, we are actually fulfilling the law that tells us not to cross those lines. We are not fulfilling that law according to its letter, but according to its purpose, for the purpose of the law is our collective safety.

The purpose of the law that I live by as a monk is the growth in virtue. In order to fulfill the Rule of St. Benedict, I need to cultivate virtues such as mindfulness of God, brotherly love, and patience. In fact, if I follow the precepts of the Rule according to their letter, but I do not grow in these virtues, I have failed to observe the Rule.

The purpose of the law and the prophets, says Jesus later in the Gospel of Matthew, is to keep the commandments to love God and to love neighbor: “The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.” Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets by living a life that completely incarnated these two loves and by enabling us to do the same. If we learn to love God and our neighbor with, in, and through Jesus, we will find that not only is the law fulfilled, but so are we.