Youcat commented through CCC – Question n. 336- Part V.

YOUCAT Question n. 336 – Part V. How did Jesus deal with the Law of the Old Covenant?

(Youcat answer - repeated) “Do not think”, says Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them” (Mt 5:17).

A deepening through CCC

(CCC 1983 The New Law is the grace of the Holy Spirit received by faith in Christ, operating through charity. It finds expression above all in the Lord's Sermon on the Mount and uses the sacraments to communicate grace to us. (CCC 1984) The Law of the Gospel fulfills and surpasses the Old Law and brings it to perfection: its promises, through the Beatitudes of the Kingdom of heaven; its commandments, by reforming the heart, the root of human acts. (CCC 1985) The New Law is a law of love, a law of grace, a law of freedom.     

Reflecting and meditating 

(Youcat comment) Jesus, being a faithful Jew, lived according to the ethical ideas and requirements of his time. But on a series of issues he departed from a literal, merely formal interpretation of the Law.

(CCC Comment)

(CCC 1965) The New Law or the Law of the Gospel is the perfection here on earth of the divine law, natural and revealed. It is the work of Christ and is expressed particularly in the Sermon on the Mount. It is also the work of the Holy Spirit and through him it becomes the interior law of charity: "I will establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel…. I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people" (Heb 8:8, 10; cf. Jer 31:31-34).

(The next question is: How are we saved?)