The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 82: Jesus and the Law (2025)

Episode Date: March 23, 2025

What is Jesus’ relationship with the Old Testament Law? Our Catechism readings today reveal that Jesus is the Author of the Law who provides the definitive interpretation of the Law. We learn that Jesus did not come to abolish the Law but rather to fulfill the Law in its totality. Fr. Mike also clarifies the difference between Temple Laws, Kingdom Laws, and Moral Laws in Scripture. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 577-582. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 82, we're reading paragraph 577 to 582. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach, but of course you can follow along with any

recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your free Catechism in your reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And lastly, you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. As I said, this is day 82. We're reading paragraph 577 to 582. We know yesterday we began this reality of Jesus and Israel, the relationship. Again, we started yesterday, this article for Jesus Christ suffered under Pontius Pilate

was crucified, died and was buried. And one of the highlights of this whole beginning section is Christ's relationship with the people of Israel that realized Jesus is Jewish. At the same time, there was the reality, of course, that there's the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees. There were people who conspired with the Romans to put Jesus to death. And so there's this sense of like, we want to understand what was Christ's full, the depth of his relationship with the people of Israel.

Of course, it's one of love because here is Jesus who wept, lamented over the fate of Jerusalem, that these are his own people. Now, of course, all of us are God's creation. All of us are God's beloved creatures. But the people of Israel, especially chosen, and Jesus knew that some of them would reject him. Many, many said yes, which is amazing, incredible.

We cannot forget that. We have to remember always, Jesus is the fulfillment of Judaism. And that's what we're gonna talk about today. We're gonna talk about how this relationship between Jesus and the law. Tomorrow and the next day, we'll talk about Jesus in the temple and Jesus and Israel's faith in one God. But today we're talking about Jesus and the law. Tomorrow and the next days we'll talk about Jesus in the temple and Jesus and Israel's faith in one God, but today we're talking about Jesus and the law

because it can often be a problematic moment, right, where Jesus, for many reasons, was rejected by the elders, chief priests, Sadducees, etc. One of them, one of their reasons is because Christ placed himself as the author of the law, right? He has authority. Because of that, that's one of the many reasons why the scribes, the Pharisees, the elders, those people who were in authority rejected him, as they did not accept him for who he was, even though, as we're going to hear today, even though his mighty works validated and verified that he has authority, that

he does have the authority of the author, right? Because that's, I think I remember reading at some point the term authority in English comes from the term author's rights, right? So if you're the author of the book, you have the author's rights, you have the right of the story, you can tell, I mean it's one of those situations where I think of any, you know, famous fiction author. They get to tell us even if it's not in their text they get to say here's the here's the reality about this character and he's very okay. I mean whether we agree with them or not you can say well you're the author therefore you have the author's right to have the authority to be able to teach definitively. That's what Jesus does right. There are many

interpretations of the old covenant, of the old law. Jesus ultimately says, but this is the definitive interpretation of many of these laws. For example, the Jewish dietary laws, that they had a function. In fact, you're gonna hear about today that they had a pedagogical function, right? They taught people something.

And then Jesus says, okay, now here is the ultimate meaning of those Jewish dietary laws and he has the authority to be able to give the definitive interpretation of the law. Yeah, there might be many interpretations, but here is the definitive interpretation. He has the authority to do that because he has verified and validated. He is the author of the laws. That makes sense. So we're going to read about that today.

Paragraphs 577 to 582. So let's start with a prayer. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you for the law. We thank you for the gift of the Jewish dietary laws. We thank you for the gift of the Jewish temple laws. We thank you for the gift of the eternal laws that you've revealed to us, those moral laws that are true at all times and all places for all people.

Lord God, we also give you thanks that in you you have offered the definitive interpretation of many of these laws You have revealed to us Who it is you are and how it is you want us to come to know you? How it is you want us to worship you and to love you as best we possibly can with your grace? Send us your grace right now so that we can know you and love you and worship you the way you've asked, but also the way you deserve. On our own, we can never do this.

So please send your grace upon us this day and every day. In the name of Jesus, we pray. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen. As I said, it is day 82, reading paragraphs 577 to 582. Jesus and the Law At the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus issued a solemn warning in which he presented God's Law given on Sinai during the first covenant, in light of the grace

of the new covenant, saying, 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. But, whoever does them and teaches them will

be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus, Israel's Messiah and therefore the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, was to fulfill the law by keeping it in its all-embracing detail, according to his own words, down to the least of these commandments. He is, in fact, the only one who could keep it perfectly. On their own admission, the Jews were never able to observe the law in its entirety without violating the least of its precepts. This is why every year on the Day of Atonement, the children of Israel ask God's forgiveness for their transgressions of the law.

The law indeed makes up one inseparable whole, as St. James recalls, whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. This principle of integral observance of the law, not only in letter but in spirit, was dear to the Pharisees. By giving Israel this principle, they had led many Jews of Jesus' time to an extreme religious zeal. This zeal, were it not to lapse into hypocritical casuistry, could only prepare the people for the unprecedented intervention of God through the perfect fulfillment of the law by the only righteous one in place

of all sinners. The perfect fulfillment of the law could be the work of none but the divine legislator, born subject to the law in the person of the Son. In Jesus, the law no longer appears engraved on tables of stone, but upon the heart of the servant who becomes a covenant to the people because he will faithfully bring forth justice. Jesus fulfills the law to the point of taking upon himself the curse of the law incurred by those who do not abide by the things written in the book of the law and do them, for his death took place to redeem them from the transgressions under the first covenant.

The Jewish people and their spiritual leaders viewed Jesus as a rabbi. He often argued within the framework of rabbinical interpretation of the law. Yet, Jesus could not help but offend the teachers of the law, for he was not content to propose his interpretation alongside theirs, but taught the people as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. In Jesus, the same word of God that had resounded on Mount Sinai to give the written law to Moses made itself heard anew on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus did not abolish the law but fulfilled it by giving its ultimate interpretation in

a divine way, saying, You have heard that it was said to the men of old, but I say to you. With this same divine authority, he disavowed certain human traditions of the Pharisees that were making void the Word of God. Going even further, Jesus perfects the dietary law so important in Jewish daily life by revealing its pedagogical meaning through a divine interpretation saying, Whatever goes into a man from outside cannot defile him. Thus he declared all foods clean.

What comes out of a man is what defiles a man. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts." In presenting with divine authority the definitive interpretation of the law, Jesus found himself confronted by certain teachers of the law who did not accept his interpretation of the law, guaranteed though it was, by the divine signs that accompanied it. This was the case especially with the Sabbath laws, for he recalls often with rabbinical arguments that the Sabbath rest is not violated by serving God and neighbor which his own healings did.

Okay, there we have it, paragraphs 577 to 582. Once again, we're just here to remember the fact that Jesus did not come to abolish the law. He came to fulfill the law. If we one of the, if we can remember anything, when it comes to what Jesus is doing with the Old Covenant, what he's doing with the Old Testament, is that he's not eradicating it. It's not dead.

It is more alive than ever. And at the same time, we recognize that there are certain laws that no longer apply, even though, yes, it's alive, because God's covenant is a living covenant. He's the God of the living, not dead right God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob That we recognize That Jesus as the fulfillment of the law the fulfillment of the temple that the temple worship is fulfilled in Jesus as well that everything in the Old Testament is revealed in the new and the New Testament is hidden in the old and

sealed in the new, and the New Testament is hidden in the old. And so here we have this recognition that Jesus is coming with a definitive interpretation of the law, not eliminating it, but ultimately giving it its true interpretation and fulfillment in himself. Now, a couple things to keep in mind. Not only did Jesus give the definitive interpretation of, say, the dietary laws, we also recognize that how do we read the old covenant laws? How do we read like the laws in the book of Leviticus, for example, or the book of Deuteronomy? Well, in book of Numbers, any of the laws,

we recognize that not only are they fulfilled in Jesus. Okay, that's very important. But there also are certain kinds of laws in the old covenant. Some of them we still attend to, some of them we still are paid very much attention to and have to obey, and some of them we recognize have been fulfilled fully So you can maybe distinguish them by into three kinds

There are the temple laws there are the kingdom laws right the kingdom of Israel laws and there are the moral laws now All of them have a moral component because if God commands it then we ought to do it right that is Morality, but when I say moral laws what I mean is those laws that are true at all times in all places for all people. And so we recognize that the temple laws, they have to do with governance of how does temple worship go down and how does temple care go down and how do you approach the Lord in worship in the temple. We have kingdom laws. How do you live life in the kingdom of Israel, right? That Jewish community that was brought together under the covenant.

And third is, you know, these absolute or moral laws. Why are some laws fulfilled in a way that we realize we're still applicable to our lives? For example, here is Jesus who said, you have heard it was said of old that you should not murder. But I say to you that even if you grow angry with your brother, you're committing murder in your heart. You've heard it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you to

forgive, to love your enemies. You've heard it was said, you should not commit adultery, but I say to you, if you even look at another with lust in your heart, you've committed adultery. So here's Jesus who's taking those common moral laws, those laws that are applicable at all times and all places for all people, he's fulfilling them in saying that not only do they have to reach your actions, they have to go all the way to your heart. We recognize that he has fulfilled and in some ways amplified, expanded those laws. So they're still in effect.

But there are some laws that we don't follow, right? You might hear people talk about this when it comes to Leviticus and there are some laws that we don't follow, right? You might hear people talk about this when it comes to Leviticus, and there's some laws in Leviticus that we know are still in effect. Particularly, there are laws governing human sexual relations that are still in effect. And the question can come up like,

wait, why are those still in effect, but we don't stone people for violating the Sabbath? Why are the laws about sexual action you know, we don't stone people for violating the Sabbath. Why are the laws about, you know, sexual action still in effect, but we can mix fabrics in our clothing, that kind of a situation. And the reality, of course, is because the laws that are no longer applicable are no longer applicable because the context in which they existed

no longer exists. So if you have a temple law, well there is no temple anymore. Therefore those laws governing worship in the temple, they cease to exist because the temple is ceased to exist. Similarly the laws for governance of the people of Israel, those laws will cease to exist. Why? Because the kingdom of Israel, obviously the nation of Israel exists, but in a different way, the kingdom of Israel as it existed in the old covenant has ceased to exist.

You know, kind of a bio analogy, here right outside my house, there's a speed limit and the speed limit is 30 miles an hour. Now at some point, the United States will fall. I mean, it will cease to exist. Or Minnesota will fall and will cease to exist. When that happens, the speed limit will cease to exist. Right, if there is a governmentally enacted law and there is no more government,

then the law will cease to be in effect. Does that make sense? It's been fulfilled in the sense that Jesus now has established the kingdom, right? He's established the church on earth. And so the former kingdom that's been filled now in the church ceases to exist. And the former temple that is now fulfilled in the mass in worship of God in the mass, that ceases to exist. Yet the moral laws, they continue to exist. I hope that makes sense. So tomorrow, there you go, there's the lesson for today. Tomorrow we get to talk about Jesus and the temple.

We also have Jesus and Israel's faith in the one God and savior. It's gonna be incredible. And then we get to the end of this little section as we move on to Jesus died and crucified. The trial of Jesus we get to talk about in just a day or two, which is incredible. It's day 82 today and I am praying for you.

Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.