Feast of Saint Bernard 20/08/2010
Whenever I hear this passage in the Gospel about the fulfillment of the law (Matt. 5,13-19), this phrase, often repeated by Saint Bernard, as adapted from Saint Paul, springs to mind:
''We are not under the law, but not without the law.''
We are not without the law, we cannot dispense with the law as a concretization of the Gospel, the incarnation of charity. The law/rule cannot be modified according to our mood, our desires, our subjectivity, not even our ''spirituality''. We cannot take it or leave it as if it were at our disposal.
But just the same we are not under the law, as if it were to determine everything, or were keeping us to it to be just. We must not go beyond the law, which would mean to free us from it, but neither let ourselves be limited by it. We must enlarge it in the liberty of love.
Saint Benedict understood this well; in the last chapter in his Rule he invites us to go beyond the Rule:>
''Are you hastening toward your heavenly home? Then, with Christ's help, keep this little rule that we have written for beginners. After that, you can set out for the loftier summits of the teaching and virtues we mentioned above, and under God's protection you will reach them. Amen.''(RB 73, 8-9)
