It is pure grace, sheer gratuity, complete joy. I will call upon the Lord and I will be saved from all my enemies. That is the question Matthew has us consider in today's Gospel. The early Christian community, out of which and for which Matthew was writing, saw what Jesus did as fulfillment and completion rather than abolition. Jesus did not substitute a new law for the old.
Love never fails.
Only love never fails. Neither fear nor enslavement ever gave birth to love. But that does not make the way of Jesus less challenging, for we all must experience the emptiness of the cross to discover true love and learn that such love exists purely for the sake of loving and nothing else. Love is God, and God is love. Nothing else matters.