Homily for Thursday, 10th Week of Ordinary Time

Homily for Thursday
10th Week of Ordinary Time

June 13, 2022
Matt 5: 20-26
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you won’t enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mat 5: 20).

We continue reading the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus lays out a plan of life for his followers.  Altho the gospel writers present a different view, the scribes and Pharisees in general were good men, striving to please God by observing faithfully, even rigorously, the Law of Moses—all 613 precepts, by one count.

Jesus tells us today that literal observance of all the rules isn’t sufficient.  His followers must aim higher—at a greater form of holiness, at a closer relationship with God.  External observance of the Law may mean nothing if it doesn’t come from our hearts, from a desire to please God, to become close to him, to become more like him, to “be perfect as [our] heavenly Father is,” as Jesus will put it later in Matthew 5 (v. 48).

Jesus uses the example of someone so angry with a brother—a fellow Israelite, or anyone really—that he’d kill him if wasn’t against the Law.  He submits to the Law but doesn’t embrace it.  He maintains a harsh, judgmental attitude toward his brother—not a holy attitude, not an attitude expressive of closeness to God.

Jesus requires of us patience and forgiveness toward our brothers, even when they’re offensive or merely irritating.  That’s an observance of the Law—and of our religious rule of life—that’s more difficult but more like Jesus himself, a surpassing sign of being right with God and of walking the road toward his kingdom.