6th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Matt 5: 17-37
1 Cor 2: 6-10
Feb. 16, 2014
Holy Cross, Fairfield, Conn.
“Jesus
said to his disciples: ‘Do not think
that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets’” (Matt 5: 17).
Starting
last Sunday, we’re hearing for several weeks Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on
the Mount. What we hear today is how
demanding Jesus’ teaching is. It reminds
me of what G.K. Chesterton once wrote:
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left
untried.”[1]
St.
Paul hints at this challenge too. In our
2d reading, he contrasts the “wisdom of this age” (1 Cor 2:6)—which means the
wisdom of the world, of society, of our general culture—with “God’s wisdom …
which none of the rulers of this age knew” (2:7-8). He reminds his friends in Corinth that Jesus
was crucified by the powers of the world.
The world and what it values are no friends of Jesus Christ or of his disciples.
By
“the world,” of course, we do not
mean creation in itself or human beings in themselves, but human nature and
human institutions infected by sin. You
know very well what that world values:
power, money, fame, pleasure.
Those qualities are what make you important in the eyes of the
world: in politics, business, academia,
entertainment, the media, the Twitterverse.
What
does Jesus value? “Whoever obeys and
teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven”
(Matt 5:19). As an example, Jesus speaks
of killing and anger, and of reconciliation as a prerequisite for worship—which
is why we have a sign of peace at Mass.
It’s not a social moment to say, “Hi!
How are ya? Doesn’t this weather
stink?” but a deeply symbolic, almost sacramental, moment of our forgiveness of
everyone who has hurt us, of our wishing everyone to be at peace with God.
Christ’s
teaching challenges our public policy as well as our private or personal
attitudes, words, and actions. “Whoever
is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment” (5:22)—what are the
implications of that for criminal justice, for instance? Does our penal system aim only at punishment,
or also at rehabilitation? When we
scream, “Lock him up and throw away the key!” is our intention to safeguard
society or to get even with someone we hate?
Where capital punishment is legal or is advocated for, is the motive the
legitimate protection of society, or vengeance?
Jesus
tells us that we can commit sin in our hearts (5:28). (So do the 9th and 10th Commandments, by the
way.) Today’s gospel refers specifically
to lust and adultery, but elsewhere both Jesus and the Bible in general warn us
also about excessive attachment to material goods and to our own self-image,
our pride. Our society has little use
for self-restraint; it’s all for excess (except of body fat). Our society embraces the mottos “Grab all the
gusto you can” and “If it feels good, do it,” more than it observes the Golden
Rule. Our society is blind to how pornography
destroys marriages and families; blind to the impact of single parenthood on
our children’s education, nutrition, and poverty, and to their future
employment prospects, gang activity, and crime.
How have we come to the point where a major focus of the Super Bowl
would be the sex trafficking of minors around the game?
If
we want a better society, we have to start with our hearts: with our thoughts, desires, and attitudes—not
only with regard to lust but also with regard to anger, avarice, envy,
gluttony, pride, and sloth, all 7 of the capital sins. For, as the proverb says, “The thought is
father to the man.” Or, as Jesus says,
from the heart come evil actions:
murder, theft, deceit, adultery, fornication, arrogance (Mark 7:21-22).
Jesus
speaks further about adultery, moving from lust in the heart to actions: whoever divorces and remarries commits
adultery. That’s certainly an unpopular
teaching; many wish the Catholic Church would change it. But as you just heard in the gospel—and it’s
not only in Matthew but also in Mark and Luke—the teaching comes directly from
Jesus. Here in Matthew, Jesus adds a
proviso: “unless the marriage is
unlawful” (5:32), which would allow the ending of a relationship that wasn’t a
lawful marriage to begin with (what we Catholics call an annulment). Is there a Christian so bold as to say,
“Well, Jesus got it wrong. His teaching
about marriage is false teaching, and the Church should listen to public
opinion instead”?
I
would say that our society’s understanding of marriage isn’t so much different
from that of the ancient pagan world, except that not even the pagan Greeks and
Romans would’ve imagined that gays might marry.
I mean also our society’s understanding of marriage as temporary,
“open,” self-centered, children optional.
“Till death do us part” now seems to mean, “Till we get bored to death
with each other.” This is an example of
what St. Paul means by “the wisdom of this age” in contrast to “God’s wisdom,”
God’s plan for human well-being in this life and in eternal life, a plan that
includes permanence, fidelity, and fertility in marriage: life-long, one man and one woman, open to new
life even tho there are no guarantees from nature on that score.
Finally,
in our gospel reading Jesus commands us not just not to swear false oaths but
even to be people of such honesty and integrity that our “yes” or “no” is
sufficient. How often have you heard
people emphasize their words with, “I swear it’s the truth” or “To tell you the
truth” or some other phrase that stresses their truthfulness on this
occasion—as if, more generally, you shouldn’t really trust them? On the contrary, it’s high praise when we can
say of someone, “His word is his bond” or “Her handshake is as good as a
written contract.”
At
times our society seems to encourage lying and cheating—bending the rules,
finding the loopholes, deceiving the public, trying to slip a foul past the
ref, doing whatever it takes to get an A.
And then we’re shocked—shocked!—by insider trading, athletes on
steroids, school administrators changing test scores, politicians taking
bribes, and the guardians of our nuclear weapons cheating on their proficiency
tests. Integrity means being whole. You can’t be partly or mostly a person of
integrity, as you can’t be a little bit pregnant. “Let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes’” covers our whole
self—all our words and actions, and as the Lord indicated earlier with
reference to lust, also our thoughts and desires.
Being
a faithful disciple of Jesus involves our whole self; not that we’re perfect—we
have the sacrament of Reconciliation for our failures (I meet with my confessor
every 2 weeks). But it means that we
commit ourselves totally to following Jesus in this life so that we may live
with him forever. “Whoever obeys and
teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven”
(5:19).
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