1st Sunday of Lent Year A 2017

1^st. Sunday of Lent (A)

(Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7; Romans 5:12, 17-19; Matthew 4:1-11)

In our first reading, the Serpent, speaking to the woman in the Garden of Eden, directly contradicted God’s warning against eating fruit from the forbidden tree:

You will not die.  For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

However, when speaking with Jesus in our Gospel passage, Satan considered it wiser not to openly contradict the words spoken by the Father at Jesus’ baptism in the Jordan:

 This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased. (Matthew 3:17.)

Was He indeed God’s Son?   Satan was hesitant, certainly not out of respect for this possible Son of God, but out of a desire to proceed appropriately and attain his ends.  Therefore, instead, of directly contradicting what the Father had said as he had done when speaking with that foolish woman Eve in the beginning, he turned to his favourite weapon, serpentine cunning and subterfuge, wanting to settle his own doubt by insinuating some little seed of distrust into the mind of this quite ordinary-looking man:

            If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

Jesus’ period of testing in the desert had gone on for a full forty days and nights, and the devil apparently thought that a few carefully chosen words of his at the end of it, when Jesus was human enough to be feeling exhaustion, might cause Him to wonder whether His visionary experience at His baptism by John in the Jordan had been as real as He had first thought.  Satan hoped that Jesus -- having been very much alone for forty days and nights and now feeling extremely weak -- might be unable, at this moment, to deal with a suspicion he, Satan, might possibly be able to ‘slip in’ to the back of His mind.   It would have amused Satan hugely if Jesus were to try secretly to satisfy this most stealthily inserted, slightly nagging, doubt – a fruit of Satan’s very best sowing – while outwardly  proclaiming Satan to be totally wrong in having expressed such a doubt! 

            If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.

However, Jesus’ mind and conscience was no fertile ground for any seed of Satan’s sowing, no gnawing root of suspicion of His Father could find sustenance there.  Jesus had nothing to prove to Himself and He most certainly had no intention whatsoever of giving Satan the satisfaction of receiving an answer to his question.  Throughout His ministry Jesus would never allow evil spirits to testify concerning Him, and He had no inclination now to reveal His personal identity to their master.  And had Satan also thought that an opportunity for Jesus to secretly satisfy His natural hunger might influence Him, he was soon disabused of any such thought by Jesus making it supremely clear where He found His true nourishment:

He answered and said, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.' "

Jesus, the Son of God, sent as Messiah to save God's People from their servitude to sin, was being tempted just as the early Israelites had been tempted when crossing the desert towards the Promised Land under the guidance of Yahweh their God and the leadership of Moses their prophet.  On that journey, Israel of old -- sinful children of their sinful mother Eve -- had behaved as she did: feeling the pangs of hunger, they would not trust God and complained bitterly to Moses that God was planning to kill them in the desert, openly expressing a longing to return to the slavery of Egypt for the food that was plentiful there.  Later on Moses reminded them of their behaviour saying:

Remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not.  So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger.      Do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness.     (Deuteronomy 8:2-3; 9:7)

Jesus had shown Himself to be in no way subject to that over-riding solicitude for self, so characteristic of fallen humanity; therefore, Satan turned his attention from Jesus’ human make-up to His ‘supposedly’ divine mission, homing in, so speak, on Jesus’ desire to be recognized and accepted as Israel’s Redeemer and Saviour.

Satan had noted Jesus’ reference to the Scriptures and so, continuing his attempt to find out just Who Jesus might be, he took Him to the Holy City, Jerusalem, set Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and said: ‘Here, on this pinnacle of the world-famous Jewish temple is just the spot to prove yourself and win your people.   Here, you can do something that would resound throughout Israel and be fully in accordance with the Scriptures you quote so lovingly; it would be something whereby the whole Jewish nation could easily recognize that the Lord has chosen and appointed you, therefore:

If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: 'He shall give His angels charge over you,' and, 'In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.'

Whether by suffering or by trial Jesus could in no way be induced to suspect His Father or to abuse His own gifts, and so He replied, once again quoting the words of Scripture:

            It is written again, 'You shall not tempt the LORD your God.'

Thwarted for a second time, Satan showed persistence for he was beginning not only to despise, but also to fear this unknown Jesus of Nazareth.  Who was He?  What the hell (a most suitable word for Satan!) was He up to?  Today we who have, as St. Paul says, ‘the mind of Christ’ know that Jesus had not come for His own human aggrandisement or satisfaction, nor had He entered upon His divine mission for the well-being of Israel alone: He had been sent by His Father, to save the whole of mankind.  Although Satan knew neither Jesus nor His mission fully, nevertheless, his temptations were diabolically cunning shots in the dark: he seems to have thought that any human-being could be tempted successfully, providing the stakes were high enough.  Therefore he made one further and final attempt to derail Jesus’ mission:

The devil took Jesus up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.  And he said to Him, "All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.

At that moment Satan -- in the fullness of his maniacal pride and ambition -- overreached himself and Jesus, no longer tolerating his presence, responded by a manifestation of His own outraged authority:

Away with you, Satan!

before adding, yet once more, the words of Scripture:

It is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.'

‘Away with you, Satan!’   Words cannot express the loathing, revulsion, and holy anger of Jesus’ reply, but we can recall that later -- at the very end of His mission -- He relived once again, and once again rejected with vehemence, this desert experience, on the occasion of Peter trying to persuade Him to follow an easier path than that of the Cross:

He turned and said to Peter, "Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." (Mt 16:23)

In these temptations of Jesus in the desert we recall, as I have mentioned, Israel’s trials in the desert of Sinai on the way to the Promised Land, in particular the occasion when Moses told the Israelites:

When the LORD your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, then beware, lest you forget the LORD who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.  You shall fear the LORD your God and serve Him. (Deuteronomy 6:10-14)

Now Jesus sums up, and fulfils in Himself, the history and calling of Israel the Chosen People; but He is also preparing for the future world-wide People of God, the Church that would be His Body and Bride and of which He Himself would be both Head and Saviour. Consequently these temptations of Jesus in the desert are for our instruction and confirmation as His disciples.

In the first two of these temptations of Jesus Satan starts off with the words, ‘If you are the Son of God’ endeavouring to stir up suspicion of God’s love and providence.  How many Christians, today, succumb to this temptation!  They fall away from God because they begin to doubt that He is with them, they are not sure He is hearing them, they are unaware of His helping, guiding, hand in their lives.  “I don’t feel anything; He makes no sign.  If only I could be conscious of His presence, if He would only answer I would be satisfied.”  In some such way they begin to demand a sign from God to convince themselves of His Providence over them: some turn away from the true Faith and seek refuge in religious sects which provide them with all sorts of pseudo-divine signs; others try to stir up signs for themselves by rashly setting aside reasonable behaviour and pushing themselves to become neurotically excited and disturbed.  You will see some of these in ‘popular’ churches doing all sorts of strange antics or excessive practices.  Many more, however, complaining that God is silent in their lives, fall away from the Faith and, as it were returning to Egypt’s slavery, turn aside to enjoy the pagan life-style of the surrounding society, trying to forget their worries and even their conscience, in a maelstrom of worldly endeavours and comforts, pleasures and distractions.

Let us learn from Jesus, People of God, starving after 40 days and nights in the desert: He would in no way make demands of God, nor would He divert His divine calling or abuse His divine gifts in order to get earthly satisfactions for Himself; above all He would never love Himself so much as to entertain any suspicion of His Father (John 8:29):

The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him. 

Finally, in the third temptation, notice that Satan does not begin with the words, ‘If you are the Son of God’ because this time at issue is the supreme sin of human, devilish, pride.  Here we have the situation of those who do indeed set out to do the work of God but allow themselves to be tempted to accept just a little help (that is, initially, just a little ‘unscheduled’ help) from an apparently friendly source: they carry on, apparently seeking to do God's purposes indeed, but gradually for reasons other than God alone.  Then, becoming discouraged under difficulties or fearful in the face of opposition, they no longer try merely to accommodate themselves but seek to win wider popular acceptance and approval: they resort to making compromises and accommodations in order to be in tune with popular tastes, with the aim of recording success where previously there had only been apparent failure.  From then on, all the high aims and loving purposes originally proclaimed and pursued are increasingly subject to their growing desire for results, good results, successful results, but above all, publicly acceptable results.

The ultimate end for such victims of the devil's deceits is that, far from serving God’s plans and the true good of their fellows they serve, and end up promoting, first and foremost, their own hypocrisy; and far from worshipping God as they started out, they end up worshipping the devil in his very best clothes, those of human respectability!  They worship him who will give them humanly appreciable and acceptable success in work done apparently for God; they worship him who will enable them to taste the general approval and personal self-satisfaction that comes from wearing easily recognizable and generally acceptable tokens of pseudo-holiness!   Inwardly, however, they dread the humility, the waiting, trusting, hoping, and praying, involved in worshipping God alone. 

The variety of humanity’s life experience and the vagaries of its response are multiform; and though, too often, they show clearly its fallen condition, nevertheless our evangelist would have us always remember that God-given, God-orientated, aspirations and endeavours are -- despite the frailties of our human condition -- truly sublime, for when Jesus had successfully overcome His trial on our behalf:

            The devil left Him, and behold, angels came and ministered to Him.

Who would want to lose such heavenly consolation and fulfilment for this world’s passing pleasures and the blandishments of worldly wise and wicked men?                                      

Eighth Sunday of Year A 2017

8th. SUNDAY (A)

(Isaiah 49:14-15; 1^st. Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 6:24-34)

No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.  Do not worry about tomorrow; tomorrow will take care of itself. Sufficient for a day is its own evil.  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Today’s Gospel reading is of supreme importance for our personal well-being, for the most frequently encountered, truly great, obstacle to our living more fully human and Christian lives is distraction, deliberately cultivated and eagerly sought for in our media- sensitive modern society: leading directly to superficiality and derivatively to ‘cares of the world’ -- worrying over what is past, self-solicitude for the present, and anxiety about what the future might hold – all of which, together, make effective self-commitment to God and His purposes well-nigh impossible, as can be found in the lives of so many nominal Catholics and Christians today.

Our modern world, becoming ever more at variance with the Lord, boasts about its ability to provide endless distractions (literally at the tip of one’s finger!) whilst denying, indeed mocking, the very suggestion that there is any institutionally-accepted cause for the sickness and pain of superficiality, indecisiveness, and anxiety in the lives of so many: what is so popular and generates so much money cannot be wrong!  At least, it must be tolerated!   Jesus, on the contrary, was most clear and decisive in His teaching:

Your heavenly Father knows (all your needs); seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

Those words, ‘seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness’ require, however, a degree of commitment and selflessness that life in modern society -- where distractions generate both abundant money and immediate popularity – ‘institutionally’ opposes.

Today, young children, indeed even infants, are – through the media which delights to detail, dramatize, and magnify -- made aware of and excited by what is going on around them long before they are able to recognize, and rightly appreciate, what is going on within themselves.

How much children need to be guided by their mothers – uniquely and naturally endowed and also spiritually empowered by God, to guide their child’s earliest and most tentative response to its experience of human life!    A mother – uniquely – can lead her child to a shared appreciation of the deep and calming influence of what is both ordinary and lovable in the world around; as well as – perhaps with the added help here of a rather special father -- to a humble and grateful experience of admiration and awe before the exuberance of what is wonderful in nature and her seasons!

Again, how much children need a mother who knows herself and is willing and able to open up her heart and mind in order to introduce them – early in life! -- into an awareness of the sublime yet fragile glory of human relationships which form the fabric of daily human living and offer what is life’s greatest experience of natural fulfilment!

Finally, how many children are blessed to find themselves living in and learning with a family where a truly Catholic appreciation of Mother Church and love for Jesus’ Person and teaching is a shared light and joy, guide and support, in all difficulties and trials; evoking in return gratitude and love, loyalty and self-sacrifice?

We find, alas, so many young people are wrapped up, enmeshed and embroiled, in internet activities, secretly or even publicly, acerbic and disturbing; or else fixated on the television which -- frequently and unashamedly -- stirs up, with seductive and violent emphasis, what most young people cannot deal with aright because they have not become able, perhaps never had the opportunity or the necessary guidance, to gradually discover and learn what it is to be in tune, and at home, with their own personal self and individual make-up.  So many are ill-at-ease with themselves, and need endless ‘things to do’, to occupy their thoughts and temporarily distract their imagination, lest the ever-threatening background danger of self-preoccupation with its accompanying kaleidoscope of vague fears, raises its head against them.  As a result they are strongly tempted to taste and  enjoy some of the many passing satisfactions, irresponsible pleasures, and fleeting consolations, being touted and displayed in a continuous stream on the screen before them or in the late night, back-street, or foolishly juvenile society around them; all of which bring nothing more than a multiplicity of shallow satisfactions and passing moments of pseudo-exaltation, before ebbing away and leaving behind, as the wages of sin and worldly inheritance, a numbing sense of frustration, emptiness, and disenchantment.

Today Jesus seeks to protect young people from such situations.   Life is not meant to be lived in a warren with dark corridors leading hither and thither into ever deeper recesses of darkness and threat.  He speaks to us as Lord and Master with words that are both sure and true:

No man can serve two masters; he will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other.  You cannot serve God and wealth.

Jesus lived and died with the words of Israel’s psalms in His heart and on His lips, and often in the Gospels He seeks to pass on to us some of the blessings He Himself had gained from living those words to the full.  Today’s is one such psalm:

Only in God be at rest, my soul, for from Him comes my hope.  He only is my rock and my salvation, my stronghold.   I shall not be disturbed. 

Notice those final words: ‘I shall not be disturbed’; they indicate a deliberately willed purpose, not a hardly-noticed automatic or merely hoped-for result.  If we look at Jesus we can see how He Himself followed the psalmist’s lead, and we may, perhaps, even glimpse thereby something of His Personal relationship with His Father in Heaven:

Look at the birds in the sky; they do not sow or reap, they gather nothing into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

He must have often seen and thought upon what He saw when, alone, He watched and heard the birds fluttering above and around Him; and as He observed them His thoughts would  instinctively turn to His Father, their habitual resting place … ‘they do not sow but My heavenly Father feeds them’.

Learn from the wild flowers.  They do not work or spin.  But not even Solomon in all his splendour was clothed … as God has clothed them, the grass of the field.

Again, He must frequently have admired the simple beauty of Israel’s flowers, and always His thoughts would turn in gratitude to, and rest confidently with, His Father …. ‘I shall not be disturbed’.

Jesus’ love for His Father was total and unremitting … He saw what was beautiful or good and immediately His life’s compass swung to His Father in admiration and praise; and when He looked upon what was evil He would compassionate His Father:

                Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

Ultimately, love is the only guarantee that we will never be subject to the domination and dichotomy of two masters.  It is love alone which can give us the initial strength and courage to choose, to shoulder what we might possibly admire but could never, of ourselves, undertake.

But for such love of God we have to be prepared to give ourselves … ‘I shall not allow myself to be disturbed, I will love God!’

If we now turn to St. Paul we will see, and wonder at, of his oneness with Jesus’ teaching; for we are all surely aware of our human sensitivity to the opinion of others, and even more especially might that have been felt by Paul, since his work did not involve objective skills, tangible powers, but was totally concerned and involved with people, affecting them and indeed changing them through his proclamation of the Good News.  Would not his ability, success, and effectiveness as an Apostle, therefore, be inextricably linked with, and in some measure dependent upon, his own personal charm and popularity?   But in blunt contradiction with any such thoughts or suppositions, Paul tells us:

It does not concern me in the least that I be judged by you or by any human tribunal.

Paul was in not subject to human opinion!  Indeed, in that respect one can say that he was dead to men.  He served but one Master.  And yet, there was another, more secret and hidden tribunal by which he might have been affected, influenced, and ultimately corrupted, in his discipleship: that of self-justification and self-satisfaction.  But Paul proceeds immediately to totally repel any such thought:

I do not even pass judgement on myself; but I do not thereby stand acquitted; the One who judges me is the Lord.

Paul was sublimely simple: no reflecting on himself, neither his successes or failures nor his personal faults or popularity.  He was indeed, a most wonderful disciple of Jesus His Lord … one dead to the world and even to himself for love of Jesus:

I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have accepted the loss of all things and I consider them so much rubbish, that I may gain Christ    (Philippians 3:8)

Jesus would say at the height of His torments and dereliction:

            Father, into your hands I commit My spirit;

St. Paul, as a supreme disciple, would likewise say (2 Timothy 1:12):

I know the One in Whom I have put my trust, and I am sure He is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to Him. 

Such examples do most surely inspire us, but the only way for us to respond to such inspiration is to follow their example.

Parents, lead, guide, and encourage your children to recognize, appreciate, respond to, what is beautiful, good, and true in life.  As they grow up and need rules for guidance and strength, offer them your own companionship and show them the truth, love, and the beauty behind and above such God-given and humanly-necessary rules.  Obedience, to be sure, is at times absolutely necessary as our ultimate defence and surest guide, but its authority and power should always be based on love and express love:

Whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.   (Philippians 4:8)

And so, my dear People of God, may Jesus’ final words in today’s Gospel inspire us to go out from Holy Mass today with loving purpose, firm hope, and most joyful confidence, to advance more surely on our life-long endeavour to:

Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and not worry about tomorrow.

7th Sunday of Year A 2017

7^th Sunday (Year A)

(Leviticus 19: 1-2, 17-18; First Corinthians 3:16-23; St. Matthew 5:38-48)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, those opening words recalled by Jesus are somewhat blood-chilling to our ears:

                You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’,

However, they were actually intended, we are told, to keep retribution/revenge -- which the Law, as you heard in our first reading, Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people, condemned – within practically containable limits, so to speak.

The middle-eastern propensity to unbridled and endless revenge – still so bitterly afflicting peoples living in those regions today – was thus opposed by divine revelation from the beginning and that is why Jesus Himself said repeatedly:

If you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.  (Matthew 6:14-15)

In our Gospel reading … remember, as I mentioned last week, that Matthew’s Gospel was meant for his own congregation of former Jewish believers and synagogue worshippers now converting to Christianity … Jesus is shown as advancing in that divine opposition to revenge, by encouraging His hearers to try to avoid any actions that might give rise even to retaliation, in order that the ever-present danger of revenge might be the more carefully avoided:

When someone strikes you on your right cheek --don’t hit him back! -- turn the other one as well. ….

Jesus went on to declare in the same way:

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy; but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Now, there is no O.T. biblical text that commands hatred of one’s enemy; which shows that Jesus was relating to, and quoting, current words and popular attitudes, which He then went on to ameliorate by proposing a preferable attitude for such situations; He was not prescribing detailed procedures to be carried out literally in His name:

Notice also that Jesus’ words are chosen/adapted by Matthew for his own particular congregation when He continues:

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?   Do not the tax-collectors do the same?  And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that?  Do not the pagans/Gentiles do the same?

Former Pharisees and practicing Jews would feel at ease with such references to very old adversaries!  And even Jesus’ last quoted words are ideally suited for a Jewish/Christian congregation:

                So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect;

being easily acceptable -- and to a measure more readily understandable -- for those who had previously sought for perfection under the Jewish Law.

So, People of God, we must be aware that Matthew In his Gospel was trying to help former Jews/Pharisees to become fully Christian; and we, for our part, must not in any way allow those of our times who no longer have any Catholic /Christian faith and have acquired, adopted, lots of edge against it and opposition to its propagation, to suggest that Jesus in today’s Gospel passage is wanting to make us into Christian Pharisees!!

Jesus later on, when Himself addressing the Rich Young Man who wanted to be perfect, said, again according to St. Matthew (19:21):

If you wish to be perfect (same word as earlier), go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.  Then come, FOLLOW ME.

Perfection for Christians is a gift, not an acquisition; and it is given by the Father through the Spirit to those whosoever, humbly and totally loving the Person of Jesus, obey Him whole-heartedly in His Church working for the redemption of mankind and the glory of God.   As St. Paul said:

Everything belongs to you, Paul or Apollos or Cephas (that is, the Church), or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.       

6th Sunday Year 1 2017

6^th. 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)