SUNDAY REFLECTIONS: SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY

Sirach 15: 16-21; 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10; Matthew 5: 17-37

(Rev. Dr. Francis Perry Azah)

On this Sunday, we heard Jesus telling us: “Unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.” Now, how could anyone be holier than the scribes and the Pharisees? They dressed in numerous images of their religion — phylacteries, or miniature lists of the Ten Commandments hung from their headbands — so that whenever they turned their heads, they would recite one of the laws that said: keep these commandments always before your eyes. They fasted, and they said loud prayers for all to hear. But Jesus said that his followers had to be holier than these holy scribes and Pharisees. How could that be possible? Well, Jesus explained, our external actions must reflect who we really are. It is not enough for others to see us performing the actions of Christians; our whole attitude in life must be Christian.

Evidently, being a strict follower of the rules is not good enough. Jesus expects us to be better than just followers of rules. How easily we become people of the rules, or people who abandon them in the so-called name of love! Both of these positions are wrong, and Jesus calls us out of our comfort zones. This week’s Gospel is all about how the Law finds its fulfillment in love. The answer is yes. We are called to be an image of mercy and love, and to understand that the Law guides us, and it must be written on our hearts. This is the most transformative way to follow Jesus and to be heirs of the Kingdom of heaven.

The readings called upon us to strive for obedience to the Law, and a heart utterly captivated by the mercy and love of Jesus when we fail to live up to the law. We are to call on His mercy and receive it with our whole heart. Christ's opening statement, that the attitude of his followers towards the commandments (and other precepts of the law) must be different, and superior to that of the scribes and Pharisees, clearly indicates how Christianity must differ from, and supersede, Judaism. Christ is not abolishing the Ten Commandments, but he is demanding of his followers a more perfect, a more sincere, fulfillment of them. The whole moral value of any legal observance comes from the interior disposition of him who observes or keeps the law. Life is a gift that comes when the Law is the desire of our hearts and an expression of love.

According to Jesus, the new teaching of avoiding murder, therefore, is not enough, but the true Christian must remove any inclination to murder by building up true, brotherly or sisterly love for all men and women in his or her heart. We must not only avoid injuring our neighbor or fellowman in his person, or in his character, but we must be ever ready to help him and prevent injury to him, whenever and wherever we can. We must not only not commit adultery, but must also develop a Christian respect and esteem for purity, the virtue which will preserve us not only from adultery but even from thoughts of adultery, or any other abuse of our sexual gifts given us by God for his sublime purpose.

The goodness of the scribes and the Pharisees was insincere; they only kept up appearances. But their hearts were filled with hatred even for Jesus. So just because we appear good on the outside does not necessarily mean we are good on the inside. We may never commit adultery, but our hearts can be filled with lust. We may never be convicted of theft, but we can rob another person of their value in the eyes of others. We may never murder, but we can blow others away with our words and actions. We may not steal, but we can cheat and thereby take from others what is rightfully theirs. You don’t have to use a gun or a knife to destroy another person, and you don’t have to beat up on another person with your clenched fists. You can batter them with abusive language, demean them, and humiliate them. You can talk them down in front of others. You can stab them in the back with your whispered words or gossip and murder their reputations. In other instances, your words and attitudes can destroy relationships and friendships.

The truth is that all people, each one of us here, are a strange mixture of good and bad. If we were all totally honest, we would have to see that there is some bad in the best of us… and there is some good in the worst of us. We are always a strange mixture of good and bad. Our motives are mixed, too. We hardly ever decide to do anything for one simple reason. Usually, we decide to do things for an array of motives, both good and bad, selfish and unselfish. Jesus wants us to have a clean record on the outside and a clean heart on the inside. For Jesus, to be good means that we must not only shun killing people, but we must also, in our hearts, not want to do away with them. To be good, we should not only avoid lusting after others and not commit adultery, but we should likewise not use other people simply for our own pleasure and personal gain. It is genuine love that matters, not just words or appearances.