Good symbols create ripples. They get you musing and making unexpected connections. They are apparently superficial but quickly draw attention to the foundations.
Pope Francis' Holy Thursday expedition to the juvenile justice centre to wash the feet of young people, male and female, Christian and Muslim, was a case in point. It was a symbol of pastoral outreach to the disadvantaged outside the Catholic community, but it also prompted discussion about the place of law in church and society.
This reflection is much needed in Australia today.
Catholics have often seen rules about liturgy and other aspects of Catholic life as sacred in the sense that they are unalterably binding. And although the laws of the state may be bent to fit self-interest, many Australians also see them as sacred and not to be broken under any pretext. The mythical cavalier Australian approach to law and rules in our day is just a myth. Those who break laws for whatever reason are inordinately blamed.
That is evident in the common Australian attitude to asylum seekers. Although they have arrived legally in Australia to claim protection, they have only to be described as illegals to lose any support they had.
It is now also rare for idealistic people to commit such symbolic breaches of the law as trespassing on military bases in order to proclaim the injustice of Australian military ventures. For most Australians it is enough to hear that they have broken a law passed by Parliament to condemn them and their action without further reflection.
Missing in these approaches to law is the recognition that rules and laws serve a higher purpose.
They shape an order that protects human flourishing. The flourishing of persons in their relationships to others and as a society and to the world is what matters most deeply. In the language of Catholic canon law, 'in the Church the salvation of souls must always be the supreme law'. The reason for state laws, too, is to create a space within which human beings can reach their human potential in a way that enhances all people.
This means that rules are to be obeyed not simply because they are enacted legally, but because they support human flourishing.
For this reason they may allow explicit exceptions, and courts will allow room for implicit exceptions. Police and ambulance drivers for example, are entitled to disregard traffic laws when lives are at risk, provided they can do so