LAW AND LAWYERS

I’ve mentioned here before that I come from a family of lawyers.  My father was an excellent and honorable lawyer, so was his brother, my uncle.  So I’m well aware that is quite possible to be a fine Christian person and at the same time to practice law.  I’ve had all kinds of friends over the years whom I’d describe in the same way.  But it doesn’t nearly always work out that way.

It’s equally possible to be a bad lawyer, not only in the sense of being incompetent, but more importantly in separating lawyering from the values which law is intended to serve - to use law as some sort of battering ram in order to dehumanize people or even to cause them harm.  It’s the difference between being a lawyer and being a “legalist,” and our Church is no stranger to that temptation either. Pope Francis has spoken to that topic very often.  A legalist is the person who is rigid, and whose first question in evaluating another human being is to ask what the law dictates and how absolutely people conform to it.

By contrast, a lawyer first asks why laws exist in the first place, and what they do or don’t do in promoting healthy living and thriving and safety among people and communities.  The legalist solves problems on appeal to legislation alone.  The lawyer solves problems by paying attention to real people in real situations, and wondering how the law can best be used to help them through difficult situations.

The challenge for the rest of us who aren’t attorneys is that both the legalists and the lawyers present themselves to us with the same set of credentials. They both have a J.D. degree framed on their office walls and the word “Esquire” used on their business cards. Without knowing them it can be difficult to tell which is which. Jesus himself was a Rabbi and in that sense he was a teacher of Jewish law.  But what sort of law practice was he engaged in?  Was he the kind to simply quote texts and pronounce verdicts?  To simply cite precedents from previous lawmakers and then to call it a day? Was he a legalist? Or was he a teacher who went on to ask the next necessary question, namely, what is the effect of this law on actual people? And why does it exist at all?  What are the precious values that are imagined to be at stake here?

Today’s scriptures leave little doubt as to the answer.  The gospel might well be titled, “Jesus The Lawyer Meets the Legalists.”  The Pharisees, the “lawyers”, approach him with a question about divorce law in Israel. As Mark points out, their question was a setup, a trap, to get Jesus to say the wrong thing.  “Just look what Moses said,” they told him.  But rather than taking the bait, Jesus instead broadened the question:  Why did Moses teach that?  It was a concession to our weak and sometimes sinful human condition.  Moses allowed for divorce under certain conditions, not because divorce is a good thing – it’s not; it’s a tragic thing.  But sometimes it’s the only thing that can bring an end to suffering or abuse or spiritual ruin.  Jesus referred to it as the consequence of hardened hearts, not something to be celebrated, but something to be acknowledged when it is present in relationships.

The high ideal of marriage does not change. It is there for us to hear again today in our first reading (Book of Genesis).  That is the goal to which every spouse of faith aspires.  Rightly.  But when the complexities of real life settle in, other questions often need to be asked.  Jesus was a lawyer, but not a legalist.  Elsewhere in the gospels he speaks of his high regard for Jewish law, saying that he arrived not to abolish it but to fulfill it.  Fulfilling means asking the next question:  What does the law do for people and to people?  The law is not an end unto itself, and we don’t address the situations of human beings merely by enacting new and different laws.  What a basic insight that is, and how much more Christian might we be if we actually lived into that truth.

As I mentioned, our Church also is not without its laws.  The most recent Roman Catholic Code of Canon Law, published in 1983, has exactly 1,752 of them.  We can agree that any community needs its rules, but that’s not why any Church exists.  It exists for the honor and praise and the Glory of God and the welfare of people.

So here comes the slightly tortured segue into a few comments about our annual season of stewardship here at Pax Christi.  Every October we are invited to consider the same questions:  why do we exist?  What is our community for?  If it’s not all about law and rules, why do we engage in the mission?  I think we are wise to hold those questions up regularly, so that we too can avoid the perils of legalism.  Why are we here? Why do we do what we do?  It’s about many things.
It’s about:

• Joy - We are grateful for the blessing of each one of you. You make our mission, ministries, and Outreach possible at Pax Christi.
• Gratitude - Your generosity has sustained us through the pandemic. We are so grateful that members of our community have continued to give generously. Generosity is at the heart of everything we do at Pax Christi.
• Eucharist - It's about Eucharist. It's about discipleship in Christ.
• Care - When you love something, you nurture and care for it. We care for our community, neighbors, and each other. We tend the beautiful gifts entrusted to us: campus, sanctuary, buildings, gardens, prairie, etc.
• Gift - It's an orientation... Everything comes from God.
• Hope - We lift each other up. There is hope beyond the pandemic. God will always find a way.
• Community - Pax Christi's warm welcome extends to everyone. Our community has found wonderful new ways to be a community. The pandemic has challenged the way we gather, but it doesn't change the spirit of community here.
• 40th Anniversary - Thanks to the visionaries, builders, and dreamers, we stand on sacred ground. Their generosity has made Pax Christi possible.
• Invitation - Build for the future, pay it forward through Stewardship.
• Big Picture - We are here to stay. We may have been isolated during the pandemic, but you are not alone. We are a Christ-centered community that lives into call, works for Justice, leads with the heart of a servant, and lives in hope.

I encourage you to make your intention today. Pray for our work. Engage in one of our ministries. Be the hope that our community needs now.