6th. Sunday of
Year (1)
(Sirach 15:15-20; 1 Corinthians
2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37)
We should be eternally grateful for the
gift of faith which we have received, dear People of God, because it is the very
wisdom of God, a wisdom which can lead us to that heavenly glory for which the
Father chose us in Jesus (John 17:6):
I have revealed Your Name to those whom
You gave Me out of the world. They belonged to You and You gave them to Me and
they have kept Your word.
This God-given wisdom, this keeping of His
word revealed to us in and by Jesus, is not something which the self-righteous
and worldly-wise appreciate for, as well we know, so little did they appreciate
it in Jesus’ time that they crucified Him.
Consequently, we are not surprised that our modern world laughs at us
too:
If you belonged to the world, the world
would love its own; but you do not belong to the world now that I have chosen
you out of the world, and for that reason the world hates you.
(John 15:19 REB)
Such opposition and disregard, however,
actually serve to deepen our bond with Jesus:
Remember what I said: 'A servant is not
greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you;
if they kept My word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on
account of My name, because they do not know the One who sent Me.
(John 15:20-21)
So, though facing mockery and opposition
for our faith, we have the soul-satisfying joy of being close enough to Jesus
to be able to suffer something for Him in return, and, what is more, in
so doing we are being endowed with the protection and guidance of His most Holy
Spirit for which we give whole-hearted thanks to God for His Fatherly love.
Our confidence and joy however must never
slide into complacency or pride because we are taught that no one can become
truly wise without having a reverential fear of the Lord, as you heard in our
first reading:
The eyes of God are on those who fear
Him; He understands man’s every deed, to none does He give license to sin.
Fear of, and reverence for, the Lord is
the root of wisdom and the beginning and anchor of faith. Faith however calls, in addition, for
obedience -- at times going against our natural desires and inclinations; and for commitment -- at times calling us to
give more, be more prominent that we would prefer; and together, such obedience
and commitment gradually guide our faith to a life-warming experience and foretaste
of God’s rewarding presence even here on earth, before leading us to its
ultimate fulfilment of sharing in Jesus’ heavenly beatitude of eternal life and
love. And yet, because worldly men
loathe obedience in the intimate details of their lives above all and are
committed to choosing for themselves from the many pleasures immediately
available in this world rather than working for true fulfilment, therefore they
ridicule faith and deny the existence or relevance of any God.
For our part, however, we who come to
worship with full intent and quiet sincerity, come that we might worship and
praise the God we want to learn to know and love better, and to follow the way
His word traces out for us; aspiring to love with our whole being -- mind and
body, heart and soul -- Him Whom we know gave and still gives His only-begotten
Son for love of us and Who has, St. Paul assures in our second reading:
Prepared for those who love Him,
(blessings) no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind conceived. (1 Corinthians 2:9 NIV)
We come, as the psalmist says, prepared to
sow in tears if need be, so that we might reap a personal share in the Divine
love and fellowship which is eternal.
Now, our Gospel reading today is difficult
for us to fully understand because it comes to us from St. Matthew’s
evangelisation of his own Church congregation of former Jewish believers and
synagogue worshippers, and consequently it refers to and embraces issues at the
back of their minds which are not part of our make-up. For that reason, today we can only follow the
chief ‘headlines’ so to speak of Jesus’ words in the Gospel.
As if to prepare His disciples for what He
was about to say, Jesus began by saying:
Do not think I have come to abolish the
Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish, but to fulfil.
Therefore His disciples would need to be
very careful in their understanding and observance of the Law’s commands, as He
went on to say:
Unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus, did not want cold, meticulous,
literal observance of laws written in letters of carved stone, but an obedience that was sincere and
attentive to both the letter and the spirit of God’s commands, for without the
vivifying Spirit, observance of the letter only kills. He therefore went on to make clear His own
deeper appreciation and understanding of the Law of Moses on certain most
serious issues.
You have heard that it was said to your
ancestors, ‘You shall not kill’.
A more prevalent, and indeed better translation,
involves changing just one word:
You have heard it was said to those of
ancient times, ‘You shall not murder’,
a translation favoured by the NRSTV
(Jewish Annotated) and many others; one that presents the text as it has always
been understood by the People of Israel for whom the law was established by God
and to whom it was originally given by Moses; and one that has indeed been
understood and proclaimed by Mother Church herself throughout the ages.
Jesus went on to give them His own fuller
appreciation of this understanding of the commandment by explaining that God’s
refusal to allow anyone to rob a man of his life by murder, also implied and
required that no one should rob him of his reputation either, by mordent,
bitter words and lies meant to harm and to hurt.
Incidentally He spoke against litigation,
one of modern people’s wicked self-indulgences and society’s self-righteous
failings.
He next spoke expressly and most
emphatically against sexual infidelity and divorce:
You shall not commit adultery.
Here He both deepened and elevated the
issue by, on the one hand going on to speak of lust of the eyes supplying for
physical adultery; while, on the other hand, speaking of divorce as a procedure
incurring the danger and the charge of causing a rejected wife to commit
adultery. Moreover, those who went along
with divorce by marrying any such divorcee would be themselves committing
adultery.
Against taking oaths, He speaks in our
sense of using the Lord’s name in vain, and urged simplicity and humility when
speaking:
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes’, and your ‘No’
mean ‘No’. Anything more is from the
evil one.
Jesus knew Himself as having been most
definitely sent to fulfil the Law; and so sure was He of the validity of the
Law that He solemnly declared:
Amen I say to you: until heaven and earth
pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter, will pass
from the Law until all things have taken place.
Therefore when, speaking of the Law and
current Jewish practices, though several times He went on to add:
You have heard that it was said to your
ancestors …. But I say to you;
He was in no way abolishing the Law, but
teaching His Apostles, His Church, you and me, how to live and die with Him for
the greater glory of God, for His Kingdom on earth, and for the true fulfilment
of our brothers and sisters in the world of time.
Jesus’ main grief against the Scribes and
Pharisees was:
This people honours Me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from Me.
Hypocrites! Your pay tithes of
mint and dill and cumin; but you have overlooked the weightier demands of the
Law – justice, mercy, and good faith. (Matthew 15:8;
23:23)
And we have so much of that today, People
of God!
Many of those with no faith in, no
acknowledgement of, God, love to take up particular social issues along with
religious aspects of Christianity -- bits and pieces perhaps of remembered
Catholic teaching -- and put themselves forward as the correct interpreters of
those bits and pieces of religious teaching ripped out of the context of the
fullness of Catholic faith (such as our ‘murder/kill’ today) and understanding
them merely as words, seek to show how – without needing any God
– they themselves are more successful harbingers of human fulfilment,
satisfaction, and plenty than deluded believers in Jesus and spineless
followers of Church doctrines and ancient
traditions. And such people will
then, living up to their self-reputation, go on to reject Jesus’ teaching on
divorce and Mother Church’s teaching on abortion, to promote free ‘love’ of
whatever sort, to play with sexuality and family, and to deny there is any
natural law (e.g. man and woman made for each other) to be found in the world
around us!! Thus they attempt to prove
themselves (and their own doctrines) as loving and merciful (allowing
and sanctioning anything men and women imagine they want or need) as well as
holy (truly fulfilling for their humanity, if such a thing exists)!
Come to Me, all you who labour and are
burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you
will find rest for your souls. For My
yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)
Dear People of God, do not get embroiled
with faithless people arguing about words of faith!
In the beginning:
The Lord God took the man and settled him
in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate and care for it. The Lord God gave man this order, ‘You are
free to eat from any of the trees of the garden, except the tree of knowledge
of good and evil. From that tree you
shall not eat!
Now notice how Satan started arguing
about divine words:
The serpent asked the woman, ‘Did God
really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?’
God actually said to Adam as you
have just heard:
‘You are free to eat from any of the trees
except one’
How Satan loves to take words out of their
faith context!! How the worldly-wise
hate that manifestation of God’s power and authority -- over man for man’s own
true good -- manifested in the one faithful word, except!
Dear fellow disciples of Jesus, how true
and how beautiful, how much needed and how gratefully to be received are these
following words of Our Blessed Lord:
In this world you will have trouble, (but)
I have told you this so that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be
complete. Take heart! I have overcome the world, that in Me you may
have peace. (John
15:11; 16:33 NIV)
