Last week Fr. Garrett pointed out to us that our main vocation in life is sainthood. Before the vocation of priest, deacon, husband, wife, teacher, engineer, or whatever, our main vocation in life is sainthood; —- that is to become holy. —– Today’s readings give us the good news that it’s completely up to us whether we achieve that goal. God gave us free will. In our 1st reading we hear, “Before man are life and death, good and evil. Whichever he chooses shall be given him.” We have the choice and it’s completely up to us whether we achieve holiness. —– Fortunately, God also gives us instructions for how to get there.
From the very beginning of creation God has made his will known to mankind. He started by writing what we call “Natural Law” onto the heart of every person. Under this “natural law”, we’re given the basic sense, or an inner voice that tells us right from wrong. —–We all have that, don’t we? —Even when we were little, we knew. We had a pretty good sense. And it didn’t take us long to learn that there were consequences to our decisions.
God knew that we needed more help. Through the original sin of Adam and Eve sin entered the world, and ever since then mankind has had a weakness towards sin. So, God made his will known in a more substantial manner when he put it down in words and gave the Ten Commandments to Moses. Now God’s people had a guide that made it easier for them to understand what God wanted of them; how to achieve holiness by regulating their actions according to God’s will. If we’re sincere in our reasoning, we can’t fail to see that we’ll achieve happiness, and we’ll achieve holiness by observing the Ten Commandments —– which will ultimately lead us to heaven. They teach us what to do and what not to do according to God’s will, instead of our own will. But as we see in today’s Gospel, just strictly following God’s law isn’t enough.
The Jewish people had the “Torah”, which is the first five books of the Old Testament known as “The Law”. Through the centuries, God’s people made all kinds of additions to the law and made various interpretations of the law. By Jesus’ time there were also many false teachings. —— At that time the Scribes and the Pharisees were the authoritative Jewish leaders. The Scribes had the duty of interpreting and explaining the law and they were noted for their sophism; —— that is, their interpretations were often intended to deceive people, or to mislead or trap them; —— while also creating loopholes for themselves. They also added other practices, which had no value under the law. The Pharisees, on the other hand, tried to impress the people with their sanctity which was based on their strict observance of the law. They were, in essence, hypocrites. Their virtue and their observance of the law were all external, —- meant to be seen by others who would admire and praise them.
That didn’t cut it with Jesus. He could see to their hearts. He tells his disciples, “I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. Jesus is telling his disciples that the literal meaning of the Law is not as important as the spirit of the Law. They were to observe the law in all its truthfulness and abstain from following false and absurd interpretations. —- We must observe the Law in all sincerity out of love for God, and not out of motives of hypocrisy and pride like the scribes and Pharisees.
Today’s Gospel is a continuation of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It begins with Jesus stating clearly that he did not come to abolish the Law or the prophets, but to fulfill it. There was nothing wrong with God’s law from the beginning; with its intent, but mankind was beginning to distort it. Jesus came to raise the Law and the prophets to a new level. He fulfills the purpose that God originally intended for the Law. In the eyes of the Lord the Hebrew Scripture was not only still valid, but it held an even greater place of reverence than ever before. ——- But merely fulfilling the old Law was no longer enough. Jesus explains that our external actions must be a reflection of what’s really in our hearts. To avoid being a hypocrite, like the Scribes and Pharisees, our whole attitude in life must reflect God’s law. ————-
Jesus goes on to bring a deeper meaning to various teachings of the Law, and how to live out those laws. He begins with murder, saying, “You have heard it said to your ancestors, you shall not kill, and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother is liable to judgment. Whoever says to his brother “Raqa” will be answerable to the Sanhedrin.” ——-The Greek word Raqa, in this sense, is a deep insult, on the same level as calling someone an idiot, or an imbecile. So, Jesus is telling us that it’s not just the action of murder that is sinful, but any thought or feeling that would become a motivating factor leading to the action is also sinful.
The passage continues with the remedy for such thoughts and feelings. He instructs us to be reconciled with the person with whom we have bad feelings before things get out of hand, otherwise we may be the ones judged harshly. ——–That’s possibly one of the hardest things to do, to tell someone your sorry, to maybe admit that you were wrong, and make reparations; ——-but according to Jesus, it’s an absolute necessity.
Jesus continues with a lesson on adultery. “You have heard it said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you, anyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ———– Once again, it’s not just the action that is sinful, but sin is already present in any thoughts or feelings that could possibly lead to the action. ——– And once again, Jesus gives us the remedy. The dramatic words about cutting off our hand, our plucking out an eye definitely get our attention, and points out how absolutely necessary it is for us to listen to our inner conscience and do the right thing in the first place. But ultimately what’s at stake is far more important than our hands or our eyes; ———-it’s the eternal welfare of our soul. Jesus doesn’t want us to merely avoid the physical act of these sins, but he wants us to eliminate the root cause of these sinful actions. He wants us to avoid the temptations that could possibly lead us to commit these sins.
Jesus then takes on the subject of divorce. In Jesus’ time, divorce had become a very common and simple procedure. A man could divorce his wife by simply writing a statement on a piece of paper. And the reasons for a divorce could be for something as frivolous as the wife being a bad cook. But Jesus said. “Whoever divorces his wife, unless the marriage is unlawful, causes her to commit adultery.” ——–Jesus was calling the people back to God’s original plan for marriage as a lifelong union. He was referring back to the original laws on marriage from the Book of Deuteronomy, which did not permit divorce. Later, Jesus explained that Moses allowed divorce as a concession because of the people’s hardness of heart. Things haven’t changed much in a few thousand years. People can still be hard-headed and stubborn. —–At least that’s what Annie tells me. People still look for ways to get around the rules. The most common reason used for divorce in court these days is “irreconcilable differences”. ———That’s a pretty vague loophole. But there are no loopholes in God’s Laws.
Jesus’ last example in today’s gospel is on the subject of taking oaths. Jesus said, “Do not swear at all.” Jewish law allowed for oaths; oaths that invoked God’s name as the guarantor of a persons’ word. That’s why it was so important not to break an oath. Breaking an oath was equivalent to taking the Lord’s name in vain. ———- But the widespread use of oaths in daily life cheapened the value of a person’s ordinary word and led to the impression that only oaths demanded truthfulness, while statements without an oath did not. ———–God doesn’t want people to be trustworthy with each other only when under oath. That’s why Jesus challenges his disciples to be trustworthy always; saying, “Let your “Yes” mean ‘Yes”, and your “No” mean “No”.
Today’s 1st reading from Sirach tells us, “If you choose, you can keep the commandments. They will save you. If you trust in God, you shall live.” ——That reminds us that we have a free will. We have the choice to follow God’s will or not. St. Paul, in our 2nd reading, speaks of God’s wisdom, mysterious and hidden; but goes on to say, “What God has prepared for those who love him, this, God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”
We see Jesus bring God’s wisdom to light in today’s gospel. He takes three evil acts, murder, adultery, and perjury and defines them in a more detailed way. —–In fact, so detailed that most of us would have to admit that we’re probably guilty of each one of them. ———
We may have never committed murder, but who hasn’t been angry with someone, —–or called someone an idiot? I have to confess; I find myself guilty of that once in a while; usually when I’m driving. Somehow it doesn’t seem so bad when you don’t know the person that you’re getting mad at, but then my conscience gets the better of me and tells me I’m looking for a loophole; and as I said, there are no loopholes in God’s laws. —–
Adultery ——- We may have never committed adultery, but we need to ask ourselves, have our thoughts always been pure? ———And while we may not be guilty of perjury, we need to reflect on whether we have always been truthful in all of our words.
Neither should we instantly condemn ourselves when we get these feelings. We’re all human. We are weak and we sometimes experience these feelings of anger, pride, greed, or lust. The important thing is what we do with these feelings. —- Do we dwell on them, hold onto them, let them take over our thinking; or do we look to Christ for strength and support. Do we choose to do the right thing? There are many things we can do to strengthen ourselves—– to help us avoid sin, and the temptations that lead us to sin. For just a few suggestions, be sure to read the bulletin.
“Before man are life and death. Whichever he chooses shall be given him.”
The lesson of today’s readings is that God wants each person to develop their own moral sensibility. He wants each of us to come to a true understanding of what will lead us to him. He’s trying to show us that holiness goes beyond external behavior. Holiness must come from deep within us, ——from the heart. And that which makes us holy is love; love for God, and love for each other.