The Benefits of God’s Law (15th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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G.K. Chesterton once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” His statement speaks to the fact that many people perceive Christianity as having too many rules and being too hard to follow. This is not something new, as people have always struggled with the demands of Christian morality. Even in the Old Testament, we see Israel constantly failing to live up to God’s Law. They would fall into idolatry, injustice and sexual immorality, and it was never long before they faced the consequences of those actions.

For the natural person, God’s commandments cannot truly be followed without the aid of grace. To the one who is assisted by and cooperates with grace, however, they will find God’s laws easy to follow. Not only do they become easy, however. As this Sunday’s Responsorial Psalm shows us, however, we also learn to find joy in obedience and the benefits it brings. We learn that the Law revives the soul and makes wise the simple, that it rejoices the heart and enlightens the eyes, and finally it ends by saying:

More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb. (Psalm 19:10)

The point that both readings make is that God’s laws are always for our benefit. If we fail to appreciate those laws, it’s because we don’t understand how they are better for us in the long run. It shouldn’t surprise us then that the world flouts those laws pertaining to sexual relations, or of justly treating our neighbour, or of not murdering the unborn. The world finds these laws antiquated and overly restrictive, and it takes those who are enlightened by the Spirit to understand the wisdom behind these laws.

Perhaps most of us still find such obedience to be burdensome. Perhaps we feel pressure from the world to disregard them. We should pray for the enlightenment of the Spirit to see these laws for the good they bring us, and receive strength from Christ in the Eucharist to live properly Christian lives.

J. Luis Dizon