Posted on 02/15/2014 10:10:51 PM PST by Salvation
February 16, 2014
Reading 1 Sir 15:15-20
If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;
if you trust in God, you too shall live;
he has set before you fire and water
to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.
Immense is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power, and all-seeing.
The eyes of God are on those who fear him;
he understands man’s every deed.
No one does he command to act unjustly,
to none does he give license to sin.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
R/ (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,
that I may exactly observe them.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
R/ Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
reading 2 1 Cor 2:6-10
Brothers and sisters:
We speak a wisdom to those who are mature,
not a wisdom of this age,
nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.
Rather, we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden,
which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,
and which none of the rulers of this age knew;
for, if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written:
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Gospel Mt 5:17-37
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
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, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was 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
will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;
and whoever says, ‘You fool,’
will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
“It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife - unless the marriage is unlawful -
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all;
not by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,' and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
“You have heard that it was 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
will be liable to judgment.
“You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
“Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all.
Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes, ’and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’
Anything more is from the evil one.”
"Palestine. Sermon the Mount." by Vasily Polenov (c. 1900; WikiPaintings.org)
A Scriptural Reflection on the Readings for Sunday, February 16, 2014 | Carl E. Olson
Readings:
• Sir 15:15-20
• Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
• 1 Cor 2:6-10
• Mt 5:17-37
“Was Jesus in reality a liberal rabbi—a forerunner of Christian liberalism? Is the Christ of faith, an therefore the whole faith of the Church, just one big mistake?”
Those are fascinating questions, asked by Benedict XVI in his book, Jesus of Nazareth (Doubleday, 2007), in a lengthy chapter, “The Sermon on the Mount”. It is my favorite chapter of the book, filled with surprising insights into the greatest sermon ever given. But the Sermon on the Mount is more than just a “sermon”, as we normally think of that term, for as the Holy Father explains, it is “the Torah of the Messiah”—that is, the Law of Jesus Christ.
This Torah of the Messiah, writes Benedict XVI in a passage directly relating to today’s Gospel reading, “is totally new and different—but it is precisely by being such that fulfills the Torah of Moses”. And the “interpretative key” is a declaration by Jesus that has caused no small amount of confusion and consternation: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”
Growing up as a fundamentalist Protestant, I recall hearing many times that Jesus had “done away” with the Law, having supposedly shown that it was no longer of any value or purpose. But that doesn’t make sense at all of Jesus’ strong statement: “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.”
This is, Benedict notes, a “statement that never ceases to surprise us.” That is the case, in part, because we often hear or assume a simple, but incorrect, contrast: The Law is bad, but Jesus is good. This often comes about through a misunderstanding of Paul’s writings about the Law. But neither Jesus nor Paul said the Law was bad, but that bad things happen when people try to make the Law into something it isn’t. It is as if someone took an airplane, which is made to fly, and tried to fly it to the moon. Keeping with the analogy, Jesus did not come to destroy the plane, but to transform the plane into something unimagined and impossible prior. This fulfillment, the Pope writes, “demands a surplus, not a deficit, of righteousness.” In other words, Jesus did not come to do away with a Law that was impossible to keep, but to provide the way and means for the Law to be radically fulfilled and lived.
This is made clear by the series of “You have heard that … but I say to you…” statements make by Jesus about murder, adultery, divorce, and oaths. This is not a case of “they said, he said”, as if two lawyers are arguing in court, but of authoritative interpretation, as when a judge renders a final ruling. But even that analogy limps, for Jesus makes it clear that he is “on the same exalted level as the Lawgiver—as God.” This is why Matthew writes, at the end of the Sermon: “And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes” (Mt 7:28-29).
This could only mean one of two things: that Jesus was an imposter of immense proportion, or he was, in fact, the Son of God, the Messiah, giving the new Torah from the mountain.
It is ironic that fundamentalist and liberal Protestants generally agree that Jesus took on the legalistic Judaism of his day by rendering the Law void and unnecessary. This misses the authoritative nature of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5, and the fact that, as Benedict notes, “Jesus understands himself as the Torah.” Far from being a liberal rabbi abolishing the Law, Jesus is the Incarnate Word who is—in his very person—the new and everlasting Law.
(This "Opening the Word" column originally appeared in the February 13, 2011, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
Salvum me fac in tua misericordia
Sunday, 16 February 2014 07:38
Septuagesima Sunday 2014
The sorrows of death surrounded me,
the sorrows of hell encompassed me;
and in my affliction I called upon the Lord,
and He heard my voice from His holy temple.
Ps. I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength:
the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. (Introit of the Mass of Septuagesima Sunday, Psalm 17: 5–7, 2–3)
The Heart’s Cry
The language of the psalms is the heart’s cry of all humanity and of every man. The Psalter is the universal prayerbook: a prayerbook inspired by the Holy Ghost, entrusted to the children of Israel, presented to the Son of God in the flesh, sanctified in His Heart and on His lips, transmitted whole and entire to His Bride the Church, and quickened with her breath and her life–blood, day after day, in the sacred liturgy.
The Sorrows of Hell
In praying today’s Introit from Psalm 17, it is the voice of old father Adam and old mother Eve that echoes in the Church and, through her, reaches the ear of God: “The sorrows of death surrounded me, the sorrows of hell encompassed me” (Psalm 17:5). It is the voice of all the just of ages past who, like the holy prophet Job, endured the loss of things dear to them, suffered every manner of affliction, and found themselves surrounded on all side by — the psalmist says it — “the sorrows of death” and “the sorrows of hell”. There are hundreds of thousands of people who are feeling this very thing today. There may be people very close to us and dear to our hearts, loved ones who are enduring the relentless assault of the sorrows of death, the sorrows of hell; sensitive souls scorched by what they experience as the brutality of everyday life.
Praying Out of the Eye of the Storm
The second part of the Introit is no less the prayer of those who are beset by suffering on all sides: “In my affliction I called upon the Lord, and He heard my voice from His holy temple” (Psalm 17:7). Prayer made out of the maelstrom of suffering, out of the eye of the storm, as it were, is rarely measured and neatly composed. It is a cry of terror. It has about it something savage, something primal, something that wrenches the heart. This is the very sort of prayer that God finds irresistible. This is the prayer that reaches Him even in the silence of His holy temple. And what, then, does the psalmist say? “He heard my voice from His holy temple” (Psalm 17:7).
When Prayer Seems Impossible
Many people have said to me over the years, “I cannot pray, I don’t know how to prayer, prayer is impossible for me.” And I respond, “Can you cry out when you are injured? Can you weep when you are grieved? Can you call for help when you are in danger?” If one can do any of things, one can still pray. God is not remote and hard–hearted; He is not shut up in an inviolable sanctuary where none but His angels and saints can risk a whispered plea. God is very near, and His heart is divinely sensitive to our pain. The sanctuary, heavily veiled and closed off to all but a few select mortals of the tribe of the Aaron, has given way to the sanctuary of a Heart pierced through by a soldier’s lance, a Heart rent by a bloody gash that is eternally open and that will never close itself to sinners.
I Will Love Thee, O Lord
Knowing this, how can one not say with the psalmist in today’s Introit: Diligam te Domine, I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength: the Lord is my firmament, my refuge, and my deliverer. There are many souls, whose sufferings are known to me, to whom I want to say, “Take today’s Introit and make it your prayer; repeat it until it becomes familiar, until it lodges itself in your mind and in you heart. And then, let us talk again. You will have changed. This I can promise you.”
Happiness Is Not Where You Think It Is
The Collect says that we are justly afflicted for our sins. What does this mean? Is God an omnipotent and callous torturer who takes satisfaction in meting out punishments day after day? Sadly, there are people who have this distorted image of God; the very mention of God causes them to cringe, waiting for a rain of blows that, they think, must surely be destined for them. Affliction — suffering — came into the world not as a punishment, but as the necessary coordinate of a world gone off its axis as a result of man’s greed for power, self–determination, and riches. When God permits us to experience suffering, it is His way of saying, “Child, happiness is not where you think it is. For you, happiness does not lie here. You may think yourself capable of charting your own way to happiness but I, from where I am, see a better way. Trust me.” God will, as the Collect says, mercifully deliver us, but He will do so in His own way, in His own time, and for reasons that we, from where we stand, cannot begin to fathom.
Yet Will I Trust Him
God has not destined us for endless suffering. There is no suffering the end of which God does not have in view. There is no affliction for which He has not a surpassing consolation in store. There is no calamity for which he has no remedy prepared. There is no grief that He does not intend to drown in joy. The one thing God asks us to do is to cling to hope in Him and to say with the prophet Job, and with Saint Thérèse of the Child Jesus, “Even though he slay me yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).
The Rock That Is Christ
The Epistle (1 Corinthians 9:24–27; 10:1–5) tells us that all the while the chosen people were wandering in the desert — forty years of unrest, of hunger, thirst, illness, scorpions, and temptation — God was with them. Mysteriously, it was already Christ, the Bread of Life and the Giver of Living Water, who followed them as they moved from place to place. Saint Paul speaks of the rock that displaced itself, and from this I would conclude that the rock in its successive displacements is the sign of a God who never fails to give us the assurance of His presence, even in the shifting sands of an unfamiliar desert landscape.
The Gradual (Psalm 9:10–11) and the Tract (Psalm 129:1–4), like the Introit, give us the very substance of our prayer this week. I cannot dwell on these texts now, but I invite you to return to them, to repeat them, and to hold them in your heart later today, or tomorrow, or during the week.
God Does Not Think As Men Do
The Gospel today (Matthew 20:1–16) is intended to unsettle us. Jesus would have us understand that God does not think as men do, nor is He in any way bound to our limited and near–sighted ways of measuring out what we think right and just. To his prophet Isaias God said, “Not mine to think as you think, deal as you deal; by the full height of heaven above earth, my dealings are higher than your dealings, my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaias 59:8–9). How often are we tempted to cry out to God, “This is not right,” and again, “This is not just,” or even “God, Thou art wrong,” and “Thou art not just.” The wise man, that is to say the humble man, learns to say — and sometimes at great personal cost — “I do not understand what Thou art doing nor why Thou art doing it, but I will trust Thee. I will trust Thee even when trusting Thee feels to me like utter madness.”
My Trust Shall Never Leave Me
Yesterday was the feast of Saint Claude La Colombière, the priest who encouraged Saint Margaret Mary to trust her own experience of the Heart of Jesus. Saint Claude’s life was marked by sufferings and contradictions of all sorts. He found himself up against a wall. It was a question of trusting God or of altogether losing hope, and this is what he wrote:
My God, I believe most firmly
that Thou watchest over all who hope in Thee,
and that we can want for nothing
when we rely upon Thee in all things;
therefore I am resolved for the future to have no anxieties,
and to cast all my cares upon Thee.
People may deprive me of worldly goods and of honors;
sickness may take from me my strength
and the means of serving Thee;
I may even lose Thy grace by sin;
but my trust shall never leave me.
I will preserve it to the last moment of my life,
and the powers of hell shall seek in vain to wrestle it from me.
Let others seek happiness in their wealth, in their talents;
let them trust to the purity of their lives,
the severity of their mortifications,
to the number of their good works, the fervor of their prayers;
as for me, O my God, in my very confidence lies all my hope.
I know that my confidence cannot exceed Thy bounty,
and that I shall never receive less than I have hoped for from Thee.
Therefore I hope that Thou wilt sustain me against my evil inclinations;
that Thou wilt protect me against the most furious assaults of the evil one,
and that Thou wilt cause my weakness to triumph over my most powerful enemies.
I hope that Thou wilt never cease to love me,
and that I shall love Thee unceasingly.
The Light of His Face
The man who trusts God in this way will understand why the Church gives us today’s Communion Antiphon in such marked contrast with the Introit that opened the Mass: “Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant, and save me in Thy mercy: let me not be confounded, O Lord, for I have called upon Thee” (Psalm 30:17–18). If, from our side, when all is darkness, we give the last word to trust, from God’s side, the last word will be one of mercy, and with it will come the light of His Face.
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Fraternal Reconciliation |
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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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Matthew 5:20-22, 27-28, 33-34, 37 Jesus said to his disciples: "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was 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 will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ´Raqa,´ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ´You fool,´ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God´s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Let your ´Yes´ mean ´Yes,´ and your ´No´ mean ´No.´ Anything more is from the Evil One. " Introductory Prayer:Lord, I can be so cold to your salvific presence as I hurry about living the moment and becoming so sufficient unto myself. There is little wonder that I find it hard to bring myself to prayer—to use faith to know you, divine love to live in you, and theological hope to trust in you. I approach you now, wanting only to be a more faithful disciple of your Kingdom. Petition: Christ, help me to be reconciled with others. 1. It Was Said to Your Ancestors That You Shall Not Kill … But I Say to You: In the Old Testament God gave the command, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This seems difficult enough to do, but in the New Testament, Our Lord requires much more. The night before he died, Jesus said to his disciples—and he says now to us—, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). How did Jesus love us? We have only to look at the crucifix. He laid down his life for us so that, purified by his Precious Blood, we might be united with the Most Blessed Trinity in the eternal happiness of heaven. 2. “Be Reconciled with Your Brother” - Jesus does not say “neighbor,” but “brother.” In taking upon himself our human nature, Jesus Christ became our brother and the head of the whole human race. He has raised us all, through him, to the dignity of the divine adoption, in such a manner that all Christians compose only one family of which God is the Father and Jesus the first-born Son. Each person we meet is—or is potentially—our brother or sister in Christ. Each is—or is potentially—a member of the family. Therefore, Jesus teaches us that, “whatever you do to the least of my brethren, you do to me.” 3. “Go First and Be Reconciled With Your Brother, and Then Come and Offer Your Gift.” - The great St. Thomas More was about to offer God the gift of his martyrdom. It was the month of July 1535. As soon as the unjust court pronounced the sentence of death, Sir Thomas asked to say a few words. He reminded these noblemen that St. Paul and St. Stephen were once on opposite sides and yet, as saints now in heaven, they remain friends forever. He continued: “I shall therefore rightly pray, that though your lordships have now here on earth been judges to my condemnation, we may yet hereafter in heaven all meet together, to our everlasting salvation.” What heroic charity! How was it possible? It was possible because St. Thomas saw his judges with the eyes of Christ. He sees them as human beings who are beloved of God and destined for heaven. So he prays that they will repent of their injustice and receive God’s mercy. Conversation with Christ: Lord Jesus, help me to see my brother as you see him: a person so valuable that you laid down your life for him. Help me to love my brother as you have loved us, with humility and generosity, without counting the cost. I pray especially for those who have injured me or those whom I have injured. Resolution: I will offer this day for the eternal salvation of all those whom God has, in some way, entrusted to my care. |
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February 16
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Sirach 15:15-20
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021614.cfm
We humans love to escape responsibility. When Mom runs to the room where sounds of a fight are coming from, she finds brothers pointing fingers at each other. When confronted with our trespasses, it is easy to blame someone else. Even in the Garden of Eden, Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent. But one roundabout way of denying responsibility is to claim that we did not have freedom in the first place, that our hand was forced, that we couldn’t help but do what we did. This moral argument comes in many forms: that a person’s upbringing was so bad that he wasn’t really free, that all of human life is physical material and so our moral outcomes are dictated by our DNA and our environment, not by our choices.
“God made me do it”
In this Sunday’s first reading, a novel version of this argument is being confronted: the idea that God forced me into a situation where evil was my only choice, that my sin is God’s fault. In Sirach 15:11, just before our reading’s selection, the false idea is quoted as “It was God’s doing that I fell away,” and in v. 12, “He himself has led me astray” (NABRE). Sirach responds that God does not do what he hates and that he doesn’t need the wicked. While the idea that God would lead one into sin might seem silly at first, think about friends who have lost their faith in a time of trial and suffering. Sometimes the harshness of life can tempt people to reject God, as if he was the cause of all their ills. This rejection does not follow strict logic, but it expresses deep pain in the human heart. We must reach out in loving care to those who grieve so deeply, but ultimately not let our grief overwhelm our faith.
When Jesus teaches us how to pray, he too responds to the false accusation of God. He teaches us to say, “Lead us not into temptation…” If we sit down to think about it, we can come to see that God doesn’t ever lead us into temptation, but we need the reaffirmation of this reality in our speaking to God. If God did lead us into temptation, some of us would be pre-destined to Hell. But the Church has explicitly condemned the idea that anyone is predestined to Hell (Catechism, 1037). God does not desire our destruction, but our life. He does not force us to wicked behavior, but helps us to act righteously.
Sirach paints the constant choice before us in the starkest of colors: life and death, good and evil, fire and water. The choice is ours. God does not force our hand. Keeping the commandments leads to God’s blessings and life, but breaking the commandments leads to curse and death. This depiction of the “two ways” is repeated in many fashions in the Bible: the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy, the two paths of Psalm 1, the narrow vs. broad way in the Gospels. While not every moment in our lives is as dramatic as fire and water, every decision we make draws us closer to God or pushes us away from him.
In the context of refuting the idea that God tempts people, Sirach explains to us the immensity of God’s wisdom. God sees all, knows all, understands all. He “knows our works” as it says in Revelation. He also knows our motivations. When we sin, we reject our moral responsibility and can pretend to ourselves that we weren’t really responsible for our actions. But God knows the game we’re trying to play. He knows what’s really going on in our hearts. He never commands us to do something morally wrong. He never asks us to act unjustly. Instead, St. Paul reassures us that even in the most terribly tempting situation, he provides us with a way of escape (see 1 Cor 10:13).
No License to Sin
Lastly, Sirach tells us that God never gives out a “license to sin.” This idea reminds me of a mistaken view of the sacrament of Confession, where a guy goes to Confession before the weekend to confess all the sins that he is about to commit, before he’s committed them. God does not hand out “hall passes” for sin. He knows that sin destroys us, that it is contrary to the way we are built, that we do ourselves no favors by engaging in it. Confession, in fact, requires a purpose of amendment, that is, a firm resolution not to sin. A priest can’t grant absolution ahead of time. It only works for sins that have already been committed, and that the sinner is now pledging not to do again.
Sirach points out to us our own tendency to run from responsibility, to hide our sinfulness from ourselves, or to blame others, even God. What he’s asking us to do is own up to our responsibility, to realize that ultimately we have no one to blame but ourselves. God does not tempt us to sin, he prompts us to live courageous and righteous lives. He doesn’t want us to escape from responsibility, but to carry out our responsibilities with joy.
Jesus told the crowd listening to Him on a mountain that their righteousness must “surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees.” Why?
Gospel (Read Mt 5:17-37)
In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave His followers extended, detailed instructions about life in the kingdom of God. He started with the Beatitudes, describing “blessedness” in terms those hearing Him had never heard before. Lest they begin to think that He was completely overturning all they knew about life as God’s people, Jesus reassured them: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” What did He mean?
In this Sermon, Jesus reveals that God’s law always aimed at the heart. It was meant to lead His people into true righteousness and, thus, true happiness. However, in their long history, the Jews learned how hard it was to keep the law that way, from the heart. Their obedience was externalized (when it was there at all) to such a degree that by Jesus’ day, the religious elites (scribes and Pharisees) were regularly guilty of hypocrisy and hearts so hard that they could not recognize Jesus as God’s Messiah. This problem didn’t appear overnight, of course. Hundreds of years earlier, the prophet, Jeremiah, declared that God would someday make a new covenant with His people, because they failed so miserably to keep the first one: “But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (see Jer 31:31-34). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus begins to explain what that promise meant.
Using the phrase, “you have heard that it was said,” repeatedly, Jesus tells us that keeping the law of God must begin in the heart, fully embracing the intention of the law, as well as its specific direction. Therefore, the law that prohibits killing is the external expression of an internal law aimed at love and respect for neighbor. It is not enough to refrain from killing someone who has wronged us. Letting anger smolder within us, making judgments about people, and even slandering them verbally all violate the intention of the law against killing (murder starts in the heart). This is certainly righteousness that “surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees”!
Jesus comments on other parts of the law, both the Ten Commandments (“you shall not commit adultery”) and the Mosaic law. These were temporal statutes given by Moses to govern the national life of Israel, such as divorce; they were meant to restrain sin in hard-hearted people. In every case, He looks to the heart, not just the external behavior. If the people listening to him began to wonder how their hearts could ever be good enough to live this way, then His Sermon was hitting the mark.
Jesus came to enable us to see how desperately we all needed God to keep that promise made through Jeremiah so long ago. The New Covenant in His Blood gives us a new heart, because in baptism, we receive God’s Holy Spirit. He is the power of transformation in us, the Spirit of love Who gives us eyes to see that true love of God and neighbor, both in our hearts and in our behavior, is the path to life and happiness.
The law of God is no longer written on tablets of stone. Jesus fulfilled and transformed that law, so that now the Holy Spirit writes it in our hearts and enables us to keep it. Hope!
Possible response: Heavenly Father, I know You desire my love in all that You ask of me, not just the legalism of keeping rules. What a difference that makes.
First Reading (Read Sir 15:15-20)
Sirach describes for us the remarkable decision every human being has to make: “Before men are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.” God always wants us to choose well: “No one does He command to act unjustly, to none does He give license to sin.” Yet it is clear that God created man as a free creature who must make the choice “to keep the commandments” and to “trust in God” for himself. Jesus takes up this truth, too, later in the Sermon on the Mount. After laying out the instructions for living God’s way, He ends His teaching with a grand choice: “Everyone, then, who hears these words of Mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock … everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand” (see Mt 7:24-27).
How can we choose well? By choosing Jesus, Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
Possible response: Heavenly Father, each new day brings me a new series of choices. Please help me choose the good and reject the evil, out of love for You.
Psalm (Read Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34)
The psalmist sings his desire for God’s help to “walk in the law of the Lord” and thus to know true blessedness. Here is the longing of the true Israelite—to keep God’s law from the heart: “Give me discernment, that I may observe Your law and keep it with all my heart.” This is the very desire that Jesus takes up and explains in our Gospel reading. Those who truly love God know that life in His kingdom is much more than simply keeping rules: “Blessed are they who observe His decrees, who seek Him with all their heart.” Our obedience to His law must issue out of our great hunger for God Himself—to know and love and please Him. Then we will know the truth of our antiphon: “Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord.”
Possible response: The psalm is, itself, a response to our other readings. Read it again prayerfully to make it your own.
Second Reading (Read 1 Cor 2:6-10)
St. Paul writes to his friends about a wisdom not “of this age.” God’s wisdom sets the wisdom of this world on its head. That is very much the same thing that the Sermon on the Mount does, beginning with the Beatitudes. The life of God’s kingdom can only be understood and lived “through the Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.”
St. Paul assures us that as difficult as this life in the kingdom can seem—difficult because it costs us everything—there is great reward in it: “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love Him.
Who can resist a promise like this?
Possible response: Heavenly Father, thank You for the gift of Your Spirit, Who makes the impossibly good life of the Sermon on the Mount possible for us.
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All Issues > Volume 30, Issue 2
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Cause of African-American deaths since 1973:
heart disease-2,266,789
cancer- 1,638,350
accidents- 370,723
AIDS- 203,695
violent crimes- 306,313
for a total of 4,785,870
African-American abortions since 1973: roughly 13,000,000
(statistics from the National Black Catholic Congress’ website)
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