Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Sir 15,15-20; 1 Cor 2,6-10; Matt 5,17-37: 6th Sunday of Year A, 16th February, 2020)
In this Sunday, the liturgy presents us with an important passage from the Sermon on the Mount, a passage that speaks of the fulfilment of the Law. Jesus declares that he did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to give fulfilment, that is, to bring it to perfection – a perfection that goes beyond the mere keeping of the letters of the law to emphasizing man’s interior attitude vis-a-vis the law, an attitude that is an outcome of conversion of heart. The author of the first reading, Ben Sirach in the beginning of the second century BC, ran a Sapiential/Wisdom school in Jerusalem; he invites those who are uneducated (Sir 51,23). The originality of his teaching consists in drawing inspiration from biblical history. His was a re-evaluation of wisdom (14,20-27) and the law of Moses (15,1-10). He opposes pagan penetration. The passage 15,11-20 summaries the teaching of this master of wisdom. He rejects some dualistic conceptions, widespread in that Hellenistic era. He teaches for example that sin cannot originate from God, because God is horrified by it and hates every kind of abomination (vv. 11-13). In rejecting determinism, Ben Sirach also reveals the true face of God and the greatness of man. Man, he teaches, is always free. If God intervenes in his life, he does not do so to replace him, but to illuminate him and invite him to a free choice; true fidelity to the Law is lived in full freedom (v. 15). Every man is thus called to choose freely, as between water and fire, life and death. Finally, the Wise Teacher/Sage affirms the omnipotence of God, who does not crush man, but on the contrary manifests his greatness by leaving him free in his choices. This text of the first reading is still current in our contemporary world as modern man often posits such questions as: Where does evil come from? Why does God allow it? Today's man believes himself to be determined by a thousand things: stars, inheritance, environment ... He doubts his freedom, the real possibility of making his life choice, between death and life.
Psalm 118 is the prayer that responds to the appeal made by the wise man: the faithful and free man turns to God. He is not like a slave in front of an almighty master; he has freed himself by seeking to know and observe the law, and he ardently wishes to progress in this way of fidelity towards full freedom.
The second reading depicts the Corinthian community as divided, since some of them allowed themselves to be influenced by the mystery religions, in particular by the cult of Sophía (Wisdom). Thus, Paul finds himself in a situation analogous to that of Ben Sirach (1st reading). According to him, wisdom is not the type that the powerful of this world brag about having, which ends in self-destruction. The wisdom of God is eternal and is the mystery of God himself. This revelation is not made to the powerful of this world, nor to the initiates in a mystery religion; the powerful ones are so opposed to Wisdom that they killed the one who is its incarnation, Jesus Christ. This wisdom surpasses all human knowledge, it cannot be reached with a simple effort of reflection; only the Spirit makes it known and helps those who love God to progress in this discovery. Paul develops the same theme elsewhere in a more explicit way: Ephesian 3, 21-21; and Jesus makes it the object of his thanksgiving (Matt 11,25-27).
The gospel text is the beginning of Matthew's exposition on the new law, application of the beatitudes (Mt 5, 17-48). Jesus places himself at the center of the development of the theme: he did not come to abolish the prescriptions of the Jewish law, but to bring them to fruition; he is the measure and the author of the Law and can say: it was said ... but I tell you. He does not come to propose a less demanding law; the ideal he presents is that of perfection.
The in-depth nuances in Jesus’ interpretation of some of the aspects of the commandments in today’s gospel reading were challenges to his then followers and equally so to us the contemporary disciples. Though they are challenges, they are not burdensome. In keeping the commandments, he wishes that we do it freely and that is why he said: «I did not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets, but to give fulfilment». He shows us the way of true freedom: and the way of adhering to the good will of God and his law not only externally, but also internally, with love. True freedom is found in love. Only those who love are truly free and willingly do the necessary things; indeed, they do even more than is necessary in the sense of love. Jesus explains: You have heard that it was said to the ancients: Do not kill; whoever kills will be tried. This is a commandment of the Decalogue. Jesus completes it in the sense that it requires a firm, positive decision against every movement, even of the heart, that goes in the sense of hostility: But I tell you: anyone who gets angry with his brother will be judged. Jesus therefore asks us more than the Law, he asks us to have mastery of ourselves. In order not to give in to anger internally and not to put ourselves on the path of violence, we must renounce not only external violence, but also internal violence, not allowing thoughts of violence to arise in our hearts. Jesus is very determined on this point of the agreement with the brothers; he does not accept that we live in situations of misunderstanding, quarrels and disagreements, he even places the fight against all divisive forces before the offerings that we present to God. Here we see how much importance he attaches to the love of the neighbour: If you are presenting your offering on the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave them your gift in front of the altar and go first to be reconciled with your brother and then you have to offer your gift. Jesus presents us with the case of a religious offering and tells us to stop this action which in itself leads us to God, and instead to take the path of reconciliation with our brothers. Thus he makes us understand that our gift cannot be pleasing to God if we present it with feelings of hatred towards our brother, in a situation of division. If we want to honour God, we must first accept his love in our hearts and pass it on to our brothers.
Jesus tells us: Agree with your opponent. He wants our heart to be completely healed, to be truly a good heart, open, free from any feeling of hatred and selfishness. Also in this saying, we see how Jesus is interested in the heart. He does not want only an external law, but an interior attitude that is in conformity with the love that comes from God: «You have understood that it was said: Do not commit adultery; but I say to you: whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Jesus commands us to remove any sentiment that is not according to the holy will of God. He is not satisfied with prohibiting external behaviours, but he wants our heart to be truly pure, free from any to selfish yield and bad desires. On this occasion, Jesus is very determined, because he speaks against the scandal, that is, against the occasion of sin: If your right eye is an occasion for scandal, take it out and throw it away from you. It is not possible to be more resolute, more exacting than this. If the eye, which is so precious for our life, is an occasion for sin, we must get it out and throw it away. Of course here we have a figurative language, which indicates the resoluteness that we must have in the fight against sin. Jesus explains: It is better for one of your members to perish, rather than for your whole body to end up in Gehenna. Then Jesus repeats the same thing for the right hand, the hand that is usually more skilled, therefore more necessary for life. If it is an occasion for sin, it must be cut and thrown away. Thus Jesus fulfils the Law, asking us to reject any temptation in a very decisive way. He also requires perfect sincerity. It says: You have understood that it was said to the ancients: Do not perjure, but fulfil your oaths with the Lord; but I say to you: do not swear at all: neither for heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor for earth, because it is the stool for his feet; nor for Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king. Do not swear even by your head, because you do not have the power to make one hair white or black. The oath will be useless, if we are always sincere, and manifest it in all our conduct. Again, Jesus requires us to take a very determined interior attitude, in the sense of perfect sincerity. All of this is difficult for us to implement, but Jesus also gives us the strength to go in this direction. He is not content to present us commandments, he came into the world to give us his grace, which not only helps us, but also gives us the joy of perfectly fulfilling the will of God in the sense of perfect love for him and generous love for brothers. This is Christian wisdom, a wisdom that may seem strange, because completely opposite principles prevail in the world. The world believes to find happiness in connivance with evil, in seeking its own interests, even with a bad conscience. Christian wisdom, on the other hand, requires a complete break with violence, lies and every feeling of selfishness and wickedness. Paul tells us that with this Christian wisdom we will obtain wonderful things: Those things which the eye has not seen, nor the ear has heard, never entered the heart of man, these God prepared for those who love him. If we follow the path traced by Jesus, we can be completely sure of obtaining inner peace and joy and continually progressing on the path of love. May we, therefore, in today’s Eucharistic celebration, be endowed with the graces to fulfil God’s will in our lives driven by true freedom and internally motivated by love of God and neighbour. +John I. Okoye
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