Homily: June 14, 2023, Wednesday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time (Smallest Letter)

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 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.

What is the smallest letter of the law?

In my home diocese in India, the church belongs to the Syro-Malabar tradition and our liturgy is celebrated differently from the Roman rite we celebrate here.

The liturgical language used is East Syriac. Syriac is very similar to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus and His disciples. Both languages share the same alphabet, and within it, the smallest letter is the Yod (^), which resembles a small upside-down "V". One of our seminarian friends was nicknamed "Yod" because of his small physical stature. 

Despite its size, this letter holds great significance in the language. Yod is used to form all the other letters, and since the Jewish tradition holds that God uses all the letters as the building blocks of creation, Yod points to God's omnipresence. And creation is natural law.

So when Jesus says ‘the smallest letter’ of the law, He could be referring to the foundation of natural law, pointing to God’s intention for the creation of the world, love.

Until heaven and earth pass away, love will never pass.

Today, one of the biggest challenges of the Church's mission is relativism. To many people especially the young ones, everything is subjective. To them, morality is subjective, everything is relative, nothing is absolute, truth is personal. God’s law is thus disregarded.

For a nation, the supreme law of the state is its constitution. For the church, her constitution is the Gospel. A faithful citizen of the state will give utmost respect to its constitution. As faithful Catholics, do we also give utmost respect to God’s law?

Do we truly understand God’s law in matters like Euthanasia, abortion, same-sex union?

Do we live in obedience to the Gospel?

Or do we question its truth and expect it to follow the ways of the world, to keep up with modern times as some people like to say?

Which do you follow?

Everything in the Gospel is founded on love, agape self-giving, self-emptying love. Until heaven and earth pass away, love will never pass. Amen


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