Wednesday of the Third Week of Lent

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031412.cfm

OH! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!
For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood
Upon our side, we who were strong in love!
Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,
But to be young was very heaven!

When I recall the late 1960's and my years at Saint Louis University, I think of Wordsworth's Preludes and his expression, "to be young was very heaven." In those halcyon days in the Ivory Tower we discussed revolution versus evolution. Should we abolish the law or work for change from within it? 
Eventually Jesus' teaching would penetrate my understanding, though it took a while. His revolution blossoms from the ancient roots of Jewish life, prayer, tradition, and history. 
Every change that now seems revolutionary eventually reappears as evolutionary. Memory -- the duty of historians -- fits the broken parts together and what seemed disjointed at the time becomes a seamless narrative. 


Saint Matthew's gospel struggles with this dilemma. Should the Jewish convert rebel against Jewish traditions or should the Gentile Christian adopt Jewish traditions? Matthew 3:10 cites the Baptist's rant: 

Even now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

He was ready to incinerate the Law and the Prophets. But, of course, Hebrew prophets always talk like that. Jesus' new law is Mosaic, but its also his. Saint John's First Letter also struggles to get it right:

Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. YET, I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

In today's gospel Jesus assures his disciples,

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.

This is good news for the elderly who feared their traditions were being dumped; and good news for the young who must learn and be grounded in those traditions. Every change will seem to some degree revolutionary; and the Gospel especially is a radical change. But the word radical begins with radix, meaning root. The Gospel heals our roots which have been sorely injured by sin, and reinvigorates the withered vine of our faith.