01 Sep 2018
THE LAW PROTECTS THE LITTLE ONES
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus is accused of being a law-breaker. On many occasions the religious elite accused Jesus of breaking the law of Moses.
Jesus points out that they have misunderstood the law and its purpose. The highest law, as Jesus reminds us, is love of God and love of neighbour. Love of neighbour particularly means love of the poor, vulnerable, and weak neighbour.
The law was never meant to make life more difficult for these little ones. It was never meant to take bread out of their mouths.
In fact, one purpose of the law of love is to protect the poor and weak from abuse by the rich and powerful. In Hebrew, these little ones are called the Anawim.
God loves everyone, rich or poor, strong or weak, powerful or vulnerable. However, the little ones need a bit more looking after.
Jesus’ mother Mary foretold that through Jesus, God would “cast the mighty from their thrones and raise up the lowly”, that he would “feed the starving with good things and send the rich away empty”.
Of course, the rich and powerful would not like this. This is one of the reasons they accused Jesus of being a law-breaker. This is why they conspired to have him killed at the hands of the Romans.
Today, Jesus calls us to stand with the Anawim, to stand up for them any way we can. He was unafraid. May we be granted something of His courage as well.
Fr Con O’Connell MSC