3 March 2027 · Latin Rite
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“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Matthew 5:17
Moses stands on the edge of the promised land and speaks to a people about to enter it. He does not hand them a burden; he hands them a treasure. “Give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you… so that you may live.” The law of God is for life. And it is a sign to the nations: when other peoples see how Israel lives, they will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” Then Moses names the real wonder: “For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?” The commandments are not the rules of a distant lord; they are the words of a God who has come near. That is why Moses ends with a warning and a duty: do not forget what your eyes have seen, and “make them known to your children and your children's children.” Faith is handed on in families, by memory and by example. The Psalm sings the same joy: God “declares his word to Jacob… He has not dealt thus with any other nation.”
In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says something that must have surprised his hearers: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Not one letter, “not one stroke of a letter,” will pass away until all is accomplished. Jesus does not throw away the law given through Moses; he brings it to its full meaning, from the outside to the inside, from the act to the heart, and above all he fulfils it in his own person, by his perfect obedience to the Father unto the cross. The Church has always taught that the moral law of the Ten Commandments still binds Christians, now lived in the freedom of the Spirit and the love of Christ. And Jesus adds a word for every parent, catechist and priest: “whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Doing comes before teaching. In the middle of Lent this is a good day to ask: do I know God's commandments, do I keep them with love, and am I passing them on to the next generation by my life?
Theme: “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”
The law that gives life, the God who is near, and the Son who fulfils it all.
“He declares his word to Jacob, his statutes and ordinances to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any other nation;” Psalm 147:19–20
“Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10
Apply: Thank God tonight for one commandment that has protected you or your family.
“For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?” Deuteronomy 4:7
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Psalm 119:105
Apply: Read a short passage of Scripture with your family each evening for the rest of Lent.
“No, the word is very near to you; it is in your mouth and in your heart for you to observe.” Deuteronomy 30:14
“But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.” James 1:22
Apply: Choose one “least” commandment you neglect and keep it faithfully this week.
God's law is the gift of a God who is near.
Jesus fulfils it, and asks us to do and to teach.
Take-home resolution: Teach one commandment to a child this week, first by keeping it yourself.
Dear friends, Moses says to Israel: give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you… so that you may live (Deuteronomy 4:1). God's law is not a cage; it is the way of life.
And Moses names the real wonder: what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him? (Deuteronomy 4:7). The commandments are the words of a God who has come close to his people. And he adds: make them known to your children and your children's children.
Jesus says: do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill (Matthew 5:17). He does not cancel the commandments. He takes them to the heart, and he fulfils them by his own obedience, all the way to the cross.
Then he says: whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19). First do, then teach. Parents, grandparents, catechists: our children learn the commandments more from our lives than from our lessons. This Lent, let us keep God's law with love and hand it on with joy. Amen.
Children, God gave us his commandments like a loving father gives rules to keep his children safe and happy. Jesus kept all of God's commandments perfectly because he loved his Father. Let us learn one commandment today and keep it with love!
Lord our God, you are near to us whenever we call on you, and you have given us your law as a lamp for our path. Help us to keep your commandments with love, as Jesus fulfilled them, and to hand on the faith to our children by word and by example. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Moses tells Israel that God’s law is its wisdom and its glory. Jesus says he has come not to abolish that law but to fulfill it. The Psalm sings the same thing: God has made his word known to Jacob and his statutes to Israel. Lent is a good time to learn that God’s commandments are a gift to those he loves. The key words are statutes, near and fulfill.
Setting.
Deuteronomy is presented as Moses’ farewell, spoken on the far side of the Jordan “in the land of Moab” (1:5), before the people enter the land he will not enter. Chapter 4 closes his first speech. The verses left out of the reading (4:2–4) recall the sin at Baal-peor. Many scholars think the book reached its final shape over a long time, perhaps as late as the exile, and so these words would also have reached a people who had lost the land.
The argument is striking. Israel was a small people among great empires, and Moses tells them that they have what the empires lack: a God who is near, and a law that is just.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live” (4:1)
The commandments lead to life. God’s law is not a test set up to catch people out.
“You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples,” (4:6)
Israel’s way of living is to be a witness. The nations are to look and say, “a wise and discerning people”. The same is asked of Christian homes among their neighbors.
“For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?” (4:7)
Prayer is treated here as Israel’s greatest privilege. The Psalms, the Temple and every cry to God rest on this.
“make them known to your children and your children’s children” (4:9)
Forgetting is the great danger in Deuteronomy. Memory is kept alive when it is handed on at home.
How the Church reads it.
St Paul lists the giving of the law among the abiding gifts of Israel (Romans 9:4), and he says that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). The Church reads this text with gratitude, as something received from the Jewish people. She adds that in Jesus Christ this nearness of God has taken flesh (John 1:14). The Catechism calls the Old Law the first stage of revealed law, holy, spiritual and good (CCC 1962–1963). It also teaches that parents have the first responsibility for the education of their children (CCC 2223), which is what v. 9 asks of them.
Setting.
These verses are part of the Sermon on the Mount. They come just after the Beatitudes and the sayings on salt and light, and just before “You have heard that it was said … but I say to you” (5:21–48). Before Jesus deepens the commandments, he makes clear that he is not setting them aside. Many scholars think Matthew writes for a community largely of Jewish Christians, for whom this question mattered a great deal.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” (5:17)
“Do not think” suggests that some did think so. “I have come” is the voice of someone with a mission from God. Jesus takes up a position toward the law that only its Giver could take.
“until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.” (5:18)
Strong language for the lasting worth of God’s word. “Until all is accomplished” points toward what Jesus himself will do.
“but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” (5:19)
Doing comes first, and then teaching. It is a word for every priest, catechist and parent, and it goes with the warning at the end of the Sermon (7:21).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism devotes a section to Jesus and the Law. It quotes these verses (CCC 577) and says that Jesus fulfilled the Law by keeping it in its all-embracing detail (CCC 578). It teaches that the Law of the Gospel “fulfills”, refines, surpasses and leads the Old Law to its perfection (CCC 1967). Jesus is a Jew who loves the Torah, and the Christian who despises the Old Testament has not understood him.
If not one stroke of the law will pass away, why do Catholics not keep the food laws or circumcision?
The early Church faced this very question at the council in Jerusalem (Acts 15), and Mark’s Gospel records the insight about foods (Mark 7:19). St Thomas Aquinas taught a distinction that became standard: moral, ceremonial and judicial precepts (Summa Theologiae I–II, q. 99). The moral law, summed up in the Ten Commandments, still binds us. The ceremonial laws reach their goal in Christ, in whom Gentiles are welcomed without becoming Jews first. None of this slights Jewish people who keep those laws in faithfulness to God. The Church teaches that the Old Covenant has never been revoked (CCC 121).