Mother Church celebrates Sunday, February 12, 2023, as the Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time – Year A. In the entrance antiphon we pray: “Be my protector, O God, a mighty stronghold to save me. For you are my rock, my stronghold! Lead me, guide me, for the sake of your name. Amen.”
The theme of today’s Eucharist is man’s free will to choose good or evil, life or death. This comes out clearly in the first reading where Ben Sira gives one of the clearest Old Testament statements concerning free will. He places us before our freedom and responsibility and makes of freewill a gift from God when he created us. In the second reading, Saint Paul tells his converts of Corinth that God has freed Christians from the Law of Moses through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. God’s wisdom surpasses human understanding and laws and the new law brought by Jesus Christ is the law of love. In today’s Gospel, Saint Matthew continues Christ’s Sermon on the Mount with the assertion that Christ came to fulfill the Law and not to abolish it. To understand Christ’s reference to the Law we must refer to the Ten Commandments that call for reverence for God, respect for parents, respect for life, for the truth, etc.
First Reading: Ecclesiasticus 15: 15-20.
If you will, you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live. He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish. Before a man are life and death, good and evil, and whichever he chooses will be given to him. For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything. The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, and he knows every deed of man. He has not commanded any one to be ungodly, and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
Comment
History tells us that the Book of Sirach, commonly known in Latin as Ecclesiasticus was originally written in Hebrew on the eve of the Maccabean revolt of 180 BC. The African Bible tells me that the author was an experienced Jewish scribe and teacher who established a rabbinic school in Jerusalem after retiring from his public career as a diplomat. He wrote to call attention to the challenges and dangers the Jewish culture was facing from the materialistic and more aggressive Greek culture that was gradually invading Palestine. The general tone of his work is a call on Jews to respect the traditional Jewish moral values and to acquire a deep knowledge and love of the scriptures as well as practical wisdom.
In the passage of our meditation, the sacred writer talks about human freedom and responsibility. He says that God is not responsible for man’s actions because many tend to shirk moral responsibility for their own actions by blaming God for them. He gives what is perhaps the clearest answer in the Old Testament statements concerning free will. There are just two ways – to do good or to do evil; to obey or to disobey God’s will. In this, the choice is ours, not God’s. Verse 14 sums it up when it makes free will part of man’s make-up, a gift God bestowed on him when he created him. As the Fathers of Vatican II put it: “God willed that man should ‘be left in the hand of his own counsel’ (Sir 15:14) so that he might of his own accord seek his creator and freely attain his full and blessed perfection by cleaving to him” (Gaudium et spes, 17).
Alongside this free will, God also gave man the commandments. God’s Law does not hinder human freedom nor does it restrain man’s ability to choose but it does show him how to make the best use of his free will. God’s commandments protect true freedom. In the words of Saint John Paul II, “Man’s genuine moral autonomy in no way means the rejection but rather the acceptance of the moral law. … Human freedom and God’s law meet and are called to intersect, in the sense of man’s free obedience to God and God’s completely gratuitous benevolence towards man” (Veritatis splendor, 41).
Although at times temptation can make it difficult to make decisions, man is always in a position to opt for good or evil. Temptations can be overcome, sins avoided because God has not commanded us to be ungodly and he has not given anyone permission to sin.
Second Reading: First Corinthians 2:6-10.
Brethren, among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him,” God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
Comment
Shortly before the passage for this day’s meditation, Saint Paul says that his preaching does not rely on eloquence and so faith too must not be based on human wisdom, which serves no purpose if people do not submit themselves to the cross of Christ. He teaches that the Gospel is not contrary to reason; only, the wisdom it holds is much more profound since it is divine wisdom. This is the wisdom he spreads among the mature, that is those Christians who are well established in the faith.
Saint Paul says that the wisdom he is talking about is completely foreign to this world, to this age and its rulers, who are responsible for the evil in the world. He is making a direct reference here to those who caused the Lord’s death (the Scribes and Pharisees, Herod and Pilate), as well as to the devil and the fallen angels. Wisdom is possible only for the man of faith, not a philosopher’s wisdom, which rejects Christ, but a wisdom that draws its origin from the action of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit whose power enables Paul to preach the Gospel. The Holy Spirit illuminates our minds to grasp more clearly the person of Christ and the blessings of God he has brought.
The Apostle says that he teaches ‘a secret and divine wisdom’, meaning God’s plan of salvation, which extends to all humanity – including the Gentiles (Eph 3: 6-8). Man can never on his own grasp its meaning, just as he can never totally understand God, although this secret and hidden wisdom can be known by means of Revelation, which we are given in Christ Jesus, who died and rose from the dead for our salvation.
All Christians are committed to the wisdom that comes from our faith in Christ Jesus, yet great maturity is needed. In this regard, Saint Paul says that the Corinthians still have a long way to go along the road to Christian maturity. Their growth in knowledge and practical understanding will depend on their constant docility to the Holy Spirit.
The lesson to take home from this reading is that God’s wisdom surpasses human understanding and law and that we, Christians, are freed from the stifling law by the Holy Spirit, who ushers in a new law of love based on Christ Jesus, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. Amen.
Gospel acclamation: “Alleluia, alleluia. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening; you have the message of eternal life. Alleluia.”
Gospel: Matthew 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 insults his brother, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to hell fire. 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 hell fire. 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 hell fire. “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.”
Comment
Jesus stresses the perennial value of the Old Testament, which is the word of God and since it has divine authority, it deserves total respect. The law promulgated through Moses and explained by the prophets was God’s gift to his people, a kind of anticipation of the definitive Law which Christ, the Messiah, would lay down.
One of the difficulties of the early Church was its relationship to Judaism. Jesus was a Jew and many of his early converts where Jews, who upheld the Law of Moses and respected the traditions of the people. Matthew, the author of this gospel, is himself a Jew who is writing his Gospel for a mixed community of Jewish and Gentile converts. He has to hold these groups together in the community – both the converts from Judaism, who respect the tradition of the Law of Moses, and the Gentile converts, who have their own traditions.
Even though he clearly respects the Law and the authority of the Scribes and Pharisees (23:2), he is openly hostile to them because of their opposition to Jesus Christ (Mt 23: 15ff). He is writing this Gospel at a time Christians are facing heavy criticism from the official Jewish leadership. They claim Jesus’ teachings are destructive of all that Judaism cherishes. Jewish Christians are now being expelled from synagogues, and this expulsion, instigated by the Pharisees, increases the hostility of Christians towards them.
So when Matthew writes his gospel he is anxious to show that Jesus has not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets but rather to complete them. He shows that Jesus completes the Old Law in its condemnation of killing but he goes further by condemning what usually motivates killing, that is, anger. He tells his followers that if their brother has something against them, they should leave their offering at the altar and go back to make peace with their brother before coming back to make their offering (Mt 5: 23).
Jesus confirms the law that adultery is wrong but goes further to say that if a man looks lustily at a woman, he has already committed adultery with her (Mt 5:28). Christ is not only against physical violence against women but also actions that can render the woman a mere object of man’s lustful desires. He does not want the woman to be seen simply as a sex object.
Jesus’ respect for the woman is also seen in his attitude towards divorce. Only the man had the right to divorce his wife, sometimes for reasons as trivial as burning his food while cooking. By prohibiting divorce, Christ re-establishes the indissolubility of marriage and puts the man and woman on equal footing in marriage.
The Church has taught the indissolubility of marriage from the beginning with full authority from Christ Jesus himself. The indissolubility of holy matrimony also signifies the indissoluble union of Christ and his spouse, the Church.
The lesson to draw from Saint Matthew’s gospel message is that Jesus’ authority is greater than the authority of Moses. We should therefore receive Jesus’ teaching with a willing heart and a ready spirit. We cannot succeed alone. That is why we gather together as a community to pray that God will send his Holy Spirit to fortify our faith as we strive to bring his kingdom down to earth. We make our supplication through Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit One God forever and ever. Amen.
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