Friday, 19th Week of Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:11-20
The Daily Office

In verse 17 we read the central theme of Matthew’s Gospel: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  More than the other gospels, Matthew insists that the Good News of Jesus Christ was not a repudiation of the Old Testament.  Constantly, Matthew cites an Old Testament prophecy that Jesus fulfilled.

But what does “fulfillment” mean anyway?  Well literally, it means, “to make full.”  A better way to put that in English might be to say “complete,” so that Jesus completes the Old Covenant that God made with the people of Israel.  At the heart of that covenant is this promise from God to Abraham: “All the peoples on earth will be blessed because of you” (Genesis 12:3).  As children of Abraham, Israel inherited that promise of blessing, which wasn’t just for them but for all peoples.  In Jesus’s time, the Jewish people were still waiting for that blessing.  But how had they blessed the Romans?  More often than not they cursed them.  But were not the Romans one of the “peoples on earth” to be blessed because of Abraham?

In our own fearful times, the temptation is to hoard our blessings and protect them against the “other.”  But give of your heart to the “other.”  Just start with your heart, and see what blessings that God, who is love, makes full in your heart.