We see Christ submitting to the law of Moses; or rather, we see the lawgiver subject as man to his own decrees. The reason for this we learn from the wisdom of Saint Paul. He says…: “When the fullness of time had come God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law” (Gal 4,4-5). Thus Christ ransomed from the law’s curse those who were subject to the law but had never kept it. How did he ransom them? By fulfilling the law. Or to put it in another way, to blot out the reproach of Adam’s transgression, he offered himself on our behalf to God the Father, showing him in all things obedience and submission. Scripture says: “As through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so through one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Rm 5,18). And so, Christ submitted to the law together with us, and he did so by becoming man in accordance with the divine dispensation. For: “It was fitting that Christ should do everything that justice required” (cf. Mt 3,15). He had in all truth assumed the condition of a slave (Phil 2,7); and so, reckoned among those under the yoke by reason of his humanity, he once paid the half· shekel to those who demanded it, although as the Son he was by nature free and not liable to this tax (Mt 18,23-26). When you see him keeping the law, then, do not misunderstand it, or reduce one who is free to the rank of household slaves, but reflect rather on the depths of God’s plan.
Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team
