December 17, 2008

• Question 117 – What did the Pope mean when he said the Mosaic Law was irrevocable?

  Question 117 – What did the Pope mean when he said the Mosaic Law was irrevocable?

   

  Robert,

  What do you think of the pope’s recent statement on the Mosaic covenant. At the end of his talk on Luther a few weeks ago, he made some additional remarks. Here is what he said:

  “For the Apostle, the Mosaic Law, as an irrevocable gift of God to Israel, is not abrogated but relativized, since it is only by faith in God’s promise to Abraham, now fulfilled in Christ, that we receive the grace of justification and new life. The Law finds its end in Christ and its fulfillment in the new commandment of love. With Paul, then, let us make the Cross of Christ our only boast, and give thanks for the grace which has made us members of Christ’s body, which is the Church.”

  Keith

  R. Sungenis: Well, I don’t have too much of a problem with it, as long as it is interpreted in the right way, and the way I believe the pope intended it. He did not intend it as a statement endorsing the legal validity of the Mosaic covenant, and his statement is a far different kind of statement than what we find in the United States Catholic Catechism for Adults on page 131: “Thus the covenant that God made with the Jewish people through Moses remains eternally valid for them.”

  The pope intended this to be a statement showing that the principles of the Mosaic Law are now found in the New Covenant of Christ. This is what he means by “relativized.” To say it another way, the Mosaic Law is made “relevant” to us by means of Christ’s New Covenant. Christ’s new commandment takes all the good things that were in the Mosaic Law and makes them part of the New Law of Christ. As such, the Mosaic Law, at least in a principial way, is “not abrogated” but lives on in the New Covenant, minus all the legal trappings it had in the Old Covenant. This is why St. Paul can reiterate some of the Ten Commandments in Romans 13:8-10. As such, the Mosaic Law is not legally valid as it was in the Old Covenant, but valid in principal. If the pope had said “the Mosaic Law is not abrogated” but didn’t follow it up with “relativized,” there would be a major problem, since “abrogated” would imply that the Mosaic Law still has legal validity, but he was careful not to do so.

  Second, if the pope wants to allude to Romans 11:29 when he says “the Mosaic Law, as an irrevocable gift of God to Israel,” I don’t have a problem with that either. In fact, I think it is very clever. The pope is saying that the Mosaic Law, in its original legal form, was given to Israel and it was not taken away from them, that is, it was not revoked as long as Israel was under the Old Covenant. That is why the pope did not say that the Mosaic Law was given as an irrevocable gift to the world or the Church, for, in the legal sense, the Mosaic Law’s power ceased when Christ died on the cross. Israel also ceased as God’s chosen people at that time. The legal custody of the Gospel was then given to the Church (Matthew 16:16-19; Romans 3:2). Hence, it could be said that the Mosaic Law lasted as long as the people of Israel were God’s legal representative on earth, and thus the Law was “irrevocable” as long as Israel lasted. But now that Christ has come, the Mosaic Law is no longer legally valid, but it still lives on in memoriam, or in principle.

  Again, the most important distinction that we must have prior to understanding the two phases of the Mosaic Law is: (a) the legal and (b) the non-legal, or principle. Legally, the Mosaic Law was, indeed, “abrogated” (cf. 2Cor 3:6-14; Hebrews 7:18; 8:1-13; 10:9). Pope Benedict himself said in his book “Many Covenant, One Church” that the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Law, was revoked (pp. 70-71). But in the non-legal or principle sense, the Mosaic Law is still very much alive and we live by it every day. It is why we refrain from stealing, committing adultery, lying, coveting, etc. The only difference is that the Mosaic Law is under the legal jurisdiction of the Church in the New Covenant, not under the Jews in the Old Covenant. As such, modifications were made to the Mosaic Law in order for it to be “relativized” into the New Law. For example, the ceremonial and civil provisions of the Mosaic Law were transformed into news ceremonies and practices in the New Covenant. Hence, we no longer circumcise but we baptize. We don’t eat the Showbread, we eat the Eucharist. We don’t stone for adultery, we excommunicate, and so on and so on.

  I hope that helps.

  God be with you.

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