Daily Gospel Reflection
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March 18, 2020
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. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
“Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Remember that time when Jesus was at a wedding in Cana? When they ran out of wine at the celebration, Jesus told the servants to fill stone jars with water which, when poured out, was transformed into wine. My friend Sarah told me that the stone jars in this passage were actually meant for a Jewish purification ritual. Jesus took what was offered–like jugs of water–and transformed it–here, into wine. Instead of abolishing the ritual or other Jewish traditions, Jesus uses them for something new.
Similarly, Jesus does not come to abolish what I have to bring to him in my life, but to fulfill it.
If you flip back to the Old Testament, it was reasonable to be scared of entering into the Lord’s presence. In Leviticus 10, Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu did so against God’s command, and the Lord swallowed them up in fire. The people in Exodus sent Moses up to Mount Sinai to listen to God because they thought if they heard the voice of the Lord themselves, they would die.
Realizing the sanctity of the Lord’s presence, it seems crazy to me that I can go into Mass and stand before God, with all of my mistakes and failures and excuses, and God doesn’t just (poof!) swallow me up in fire like Nadab and Abihu. But as promised, Jesus doesn’t come to abolish.
Instead, Jesus comes to fulfill by calling me forward to receive him in the Eucharist, which is a taste of the communion God created me for.
The next part of this Gospel calls us to do the same for others. We, too, are not here to abolish by sinning and leading others toward sin, but instead to help each other toward fulfillment in the salvation of Christ.
Prayer
Lord, we seek to follow your living Word as disciples. May we continue to be instruments of the Word as we share our lives and gifts with those we meet today. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Cyril of Jerusalem is a revered figure in the Palestinian Christian community and is one of the 38 Doctors of the Church.
Cyril was born around the year 313 AD, the same year in which Christianity was declared legal in the Roman Empire when Emperor Constantine issued the Edict of Milan. According to Butler's Lives of the Saints, Cyril was a well-educated young man, who grew up in or near the city of Jerusalem. He was educated in classical Greek philosophy and read Christian Scripture and the Church Fathers. Around 350 AD, Cyril became the bishop of Jerusalem. During the fourth century, Christian thinkers were wrestling with many different strands of thought, and discerning which were orthodox and which were heretical. These philosophical and theological debates caused tensions between the different Christian communities.
Cyril had a particularly fraught relationship with the bishop of Caesarea, the beautiful Mediterranean town to the north of Jerusalem, where Herod the Great had built his luxurious palace. The Bishop of Caesarea, Acacius, is characterized as an Arian bishop (meaning a bishop who subscribed to the belief that Jesus was not eternally begotten by the Father before time began), and Cyril was an orthodox Christian, which probably contributed to their strained relationship. Additionally, during the fourth century, Jerusalem, originally a smaller episcopal see, began rising in prominence, as Constantine and Helena discovered the true cross, the site of Golgotha, and the legality of Christianity led to increased building of shrines, churches, and floods of pilgrims coming from all over the empire to this small section of the Mediterranean coastline.
Acacius accused Cyril of selling Church valuables—vestments and imperial gifts—without permission. During the 350s, there was a famine in Jerusalem, and Cyril is supposed to have sold Church treasures to buy food for his people. Acacius had Cyril deposed in 357 by a council of bishops sympathetic to Acacius. In 359, Cyril was restored to his see—only to suffer a continual stream of exiles and returns as various emperors ascended and descended from the throne.
Perhaps, as a result of finding himself at the mercy of powers outside of himself, Cyril's writings focus on the loving and forgiving nature of our merciful God. The Holy Spirit, writes Cyril, "comes with the tenderness of a true friend to save, to heal, to teach, to counsel, to strengthen, and to console." His writing was used to instruct those preparing for Baptism in the Christian faith. Cyril's Catechetical Lectures still inspire and encourage Christians to this day:
As Christ after His Baptism, and the visitation of the Holy Ghost, went forth and vanquished the adversary, so likewise ye, after Holy Baptism and the Mystical Chrism, having put on the whole armor of the Holy Ghost, are to stand against the power of the adversary, and vanquish it, saying, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me (Philippians 4:13).
Finally, in 378, Cyril returned to his beloved hometown and remained there until his death in 386AD. He was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1883.
St. Cyril of Jerusalem, an early witness to the sacred sites of Christian devotion—pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Cyril of Jerusalem is in the public domain. Last accessed February 6, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
