Not to Abolish, But to Fulfill
Not to Abolish, But to Fulfill
Gospel Reflection for March 6th, 2024
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Matthew 5:17
At the time of Christ, the Jewish people had been waiting millennia for the coming Messiah. During that time, many figures arose who either claimed to be the Messiah or were at least thought by others to be the Messiah.1 Even after Christ, there are figures who are followed to destruction.2 The thing that these figures all have in common, contrary to Our Blessed Lord is that none of them fulfill all the law and the prophets. Certain prophetic fulfillments can be said about some of these individuals, but it is only Christ who can claim that the entirety of the law and the prophets are fulfilled in His person.
At its core, this is the message of today’s Gospel. Christ is the fulfillment of everything that has preceded Him in the Old Testament. That is to say, through His person and ministry, from the Incarnation through His death, resurrection, and ascension into Heaven, Christ has completed even to the smallest letter (iota) the Law of Moses and the Books of the Prophets.
Truly, this is the point of departure when we are speaking about Our Blessed Lord. The only way that He can be the Messiah, is if He has come to fulfill the law and the prophets. Any one prophecy or the smallest part of the law that is left unfulfilled or worse, abolished, invalidates the entire claim of Christ and Christianity. Inevitably, the question then arises, why do Catholics not follow the dietary laws of the Jews that were found within the Law of Moses? Does this not constitute an abolishment of the law?
The answer to this question lies in today’s Gospel. The Greek word that is used in the passage that translates to fulfill means to make something complete. So, fulfillment in this case means that something has been brought to its end or its completion. This should remind us of the final words of Our Lord on the cross, most translations give the phrase, “It is finished.”3 The Latin Vulgate renders it as “Consummatum est,” that is, it is completed. It is this understanding that we must carry into this discussion. Christ has not abolished the dietary laws, the clothing laws, or any of the other 613 found within the Law of Moses. Instead, He has brought them to their completion in Him. We no longer are bound to the dietary laws because they have been completed in Christ, and especially in, the Eucharist.
Where does this leave us with today’s Gospel? The entire Old Testament finds its terminus in the Person of Christ. In all that He does, He brings the law and the prophets to their providential completion. In today’s narrative, He is delivering the Sermon on the Mount and He is preparing the people to receive His new teaching which will ultimately be a revelation in the way the people understand the law and the prophets.4 In order to receive the fullness of revelation from Him, Our Lord prepares the people by letting them know that He is not abolishing the Law of Moses, instead, He is bringing it to its fullest application and supernatural end.
Today’s Gospel gives us an opportunity to see the Law of God as a whole. It is not broken up into pieces through all of the books of the Bible, and certainly not broken up into the Old and New Testaments. It is a single heartbeat from creation to salvation. God is unchanging and so His law is unchanging as well. Christ is the incarnation of that law and so He did not come to abolish it, but to fulfill it.
The Book of Acts recounts to us two of these figures, Theudas and Judas the Galilean. “Men of Israel, take care what you do with these men. For before these days Theudas arose, claiming to be somebody, and a number of men, about four hundred, joined him; but he was slain and all who followed him were dispersed and came to nothing. After him, Judas the Galilean arose in the days of the census and drew away some of the people after him; he also perished, and all who followed him were scattered.” Acts 5:35-37.
In the time after Christ, the revolt under Simon Bar Kokhba comes to mind. He was heralded as the Messiah until his uprising was crushed by Rome. This was during the Third Jewish-Roman war between AD 132-135.
John 19:30.
One of the most staggering places this is seen is in Christ’s teaching on adultery. For centuries, the Jews interpreted the commandment against adultery as a purely physical phenomenon. Christ though, calls us to more and tells the people that it is not just in the physical act but in looking to desire that one commits adultery. See Matthew 5:27-30.