6th Sunday: To choose wisely

"You have heard it said . . . But I say to you"

Matthew 5: 17-37

The Word: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021526.cfm

O God, who teach us that you abide

in hearts that are just and true,

grant that we may be so fashioned by your grace

as to become a dwelling pleasing to you.

(from the Collect for 6th Sunday)

Those who were among that Catholic “baby boomer” generation, if they attended either Catholic school or religious education (CCD), well remember how they came to know the tenets of the Catholic faith.  Besides their parents, in school we were taught from the Baltimore Catechism, in the famed straight forward question and answer format. 

For example: Question: What is a sacrament? Answer: A sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.  Question: Why did God make us? Answer: God made us to know him, to love him and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him in the next. And so on and so on.

There was/is nothing wrong with the Baltimore Catechism and with this method of memorization. St. Thomas Aquinas arranged his catechism the same way, and it confers knowledge.  One knows what the Church teaches and what God desires of us. Yet the why and the who question may be a bit more challenging.  In other words, how do I apply these teachings to my life.  How can I gage my level of obedience and my deeper understanding of what they imply for my behaviour.  Is just head knowledge enough or shouldn’t faith be more than knowledge and something of the heart. Here we come to the issue of our free will. To know what the Church teaches is one important thing but to apply it to my life is another.  God has given us all the power to choose – good or evil.  To love him and to act accordingly or to love something else that is not of God. I may well be versed on what the Church teaches but after Mass in the parking lot, I curse the person who cuts me off or criticize the homily that challenged me to admit my lack of humility.  

This weekend before Ash Wednesday we see in the long Gospel passage from Jesus’ sermon on the mount, the essential teaching on Christian morality. But our Lord is not simply giving us knowledge as the ancient people’s were given by their teachers, he now expands an understanding of that teaching and comments on our actions in response to each commandment. This is what they are and here is how you live them out.

He identifies himself with the Law and makes himself the center of each: “But I say to you . . . “Not just commentary but he becomes the sacred Law itself as he speaks with an authority never heard before from a human Rabbi.  In essence to say that he is the Law itself – he is the ultimate word spoken.

In our first reading, Sirach reminds us: “Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses will be given him.” What could be clearer than that? The rest is human history, and it all indicates why God wants us to stay on the mark he has set for us. He not only what us to do well as a loving parent would say to their children, he wants us to be spiritual and moral athletes! To strive for the gold medal and not be content with anything less. To choose life and not death.

So, our readings this Sunday on one level seem harsh.  Sirach speaks of God who “has set before you fire and water . . . life and death, good and evil . . .” Then Jesus in what is likely the toughest part of the New Testament uses some strong imagery as he minces no words: “whoever is angry at his brother will be liable to judgment . . . settle with your opponent quickly . . . thrown into prison . whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart . . .”  Then the clincher: “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out . . . if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off . . .”

Leaving no stone unturned, he speaks to the marriage covenant: “whoever divorces his wife causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery . . .” Finally, “let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more is from the evil one.”

Where do we go with this?  In light of today’s more tolerant, independent and permissive culture we may find these words way off the “mark.”  Surely God is not so strict, demanding, unbending and judgmental.  Or so it seems on the surface of things.  However, we must see this great wisdom of Christ as coming from a perspective of love and mercy; of how we are to live in harmony with one another and with God.

That harmony is marked by God’s law which is inside the circle of the mark he has set for us.  Notice here Jesus consistently speaks: “You have heard that it was said” and follows with “But I say to you . . .” You have heard and followed the law of God given to Moses and passed on to his people.  Now I come to fulfil, to flesh out that law and apply it to social relationships.  In effect, to touch on the core cause of sin and to attend to that before it grows more deadly. For example, anger which is the source of murder, lust which can lead to adulterous behavior, etc.

Yet, it is not a black and white application for we, because of Adam and Eve’s original choice, must work to achieve this level of goodness and perfection that staying on the mark provides for us. Yet, we know the danger of rigidity and the sad result of being too lax.

Human weakness being what it is, Jesus counsels us about the danger of straying too far away from the center. Most of us live in the gray area of life and Jesus was well aware of that.  We know the ideal but live in the real.  The everyday distractions and challenges work very hard to lure us away from the mark and towards what may seem easier or more attractive at the moment.

But the wisdom with which Jesus teaches in our Gospel, as harsh as the imagery may seem, is good for us to know just how far we could go without his invitation to holiness and the gift of knowing what will bring us to live in harmony with God and our neighbor.  That sin is a reality and leads to brokenness and a death of the spirit.

Marriage means something for example and Jesus teaching today on adultery and divorce is meant to remind us that fidelity in the marriage covenant is the better choice in keeping with God’s law.  Divorce as such in the time of Jesus had a different understanding.  It did not mean the end of a marriage as divorce in our day does. Then, a husband could simply dismiss his wife for nearly any reason, leaving her vulnerable and desperate to beg for a living, marry again, or give over to a life of prostitution. Jesu states that to put one’s wife in such a desperate position as to survive by prostitution, is to commit adultery.

Living in peace with our brother and sister, to seek forgiveness and to reconcile differences is the meaning of God’s commandment to not kill.  For we can kill the reputation of another, we can kill the friendship we enjoy with another, we can bring great scandal to another.  Make peace first then when you offer your gift it is truly sincere.

All these come down to Jesus’ own summary of the law:  Love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.  If we can do that, if when we stray away from the mark and come back, and not be content with mediocrity, then we can be wise disciples of the Lord.  As Sirach reminds us today:

“If you choose you can keep the commandment, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live . . .”

In the Eucharist this weekend, before you offer your "gift," make peace with anyone you may feel estranged from for any reason.  If you cannot contact them personally, then make a promise to do so as soon as possible but at least to pray for them, wish them no harm, and just let it go.  If your marriage was not in the Catholic Church, visit your Pastor to see about having that marriage bond blessed and sacramentalized. God invites us to choose wisely that we may live. Peace.