the Law

So I'm reading a new book -Christ's Fulfillment of Torah and Temple- Salvation according to Thomas Aquinas. I've started it under John's recommendation to help me begin to systematise my thoughts and theology in a healthy way (I am oh too familiar with how unhealthy oversystemising can be...so helpfully that realization will allow me to keep a sense of wonder and awe and prevent me from putting God into too many boxes...)

anyway, I've always had a bit of difficulty when it came to understand 'the Law' when I came to look at it in the Bible and try to think of how it apples to me today and some of what I have found here has been helpful. Levering talks of how Aquinas divides the Mosaic Law into three kinds of precepts- moral, ceremonial and judicial and he talks of how the latter two came to an end with Christ.

I find this helpful, although I still have questions and difficulties- how do we decide which laws fit into which category? He explains the separations, and on the face of it the whole idea seems quite straightforward. But as I began to think about it more and try to put a day-to-day practical face on the idea, I had difficulty doing so- what would a good example be of some of the ceremonial and judicial laws which are no longer relevant but which we still strive after today?

I have a feeling that a lot of the unnecessary, painful, ridiculous, religious (in a bad sense) and just plain hairpullingly stupid things that I see going on in the Church and world around me (and within me) has got to come about from us following ideas, principles (laws if you will) that have already been fulfilled by Jesus- I just have a hard time thinking of an example (0r 10).

I plan to give this more thought because I feel that this is key to my past experience with the church and maybe even evangelical Christianity- I just cannot fully articulate it yet...