Sirach 15:16-21; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37
Today’s readings invite us to choose freely and wisely to observe the laws given to us by a loving and caring God. God revealed His laws through Moses and the prophets in the Old Testament and through His Son, Jesus, in the New Testament. For the Israelites, the Torah contained instructions intended to promote the holiness and integrity of every believer; it was God’s will revealed to His chosen people, with whom He had made His covenant.
The first reading, from Sirach, clearly affirms the freedom given by God to the human will and exonerates God from any responsibility for evil in the world. “If you choose, you can keep the commandments . . . before you are life and death, what you choose will be given to you.”
In the second reading, Paul explains to the believers in Corinth how to appreciate the wisdom of God’s saving plan for his people, a plan hidden for centuries but now revealed by the Holy Spirit.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells his disciples that he has come to fulfil the Mosaic law.
After the beatitudes (cf. Mt 5:1-12) and the definition of those who live them as the salt of the earth and the light of the world (cf. Mt 5:13-16), the evangelist Matthew continues the “Sermon on the Mount” in three other chapters in which he collects Jesus’ words concerning the Law given to God through Moses for the disciples who really want to live it according to the intention of the Lawgiver, God. In the remainder of chapter 5, Jesus creates six contrasts between the “it is written” handed down from generation to generation and what he wants to proclaim, as a more authoritative and authentic interpretation of the Torah than that provided by the tradition of the teachers.
Jesus begins by assuring us that he did not come to abrogate the Torah, to take away its authority, but rather to “complete” it, to reveal its enclosed meaning, realising it first of all in his own person and revealing its full meaning.
Jesus does not deny the value of the commandments received from Moses on Sinai and passed on to Joshua, and from Joshua to the elders and the elders to the prophets (Mishnah, Avot I,1); but precisely in the name of his messianic authority he gives their final and definitive interpretation, after which there will be no others.
Jesus remains faithful to the Torah, he does not replace it with another teaching, but with exousía, with authority, he reveals, he lifts the veil on the Law and unveils its profound justice, so that its authentic observance is possible for the disciple. For Jesus, the observance indicated by the theologians of the time, the official interpreters of the Scriptures (the scribes), nor that of the committed and observant believers (the Pharisees) is not sufficient: he wants a higher, more merciful justice (verb perisseúo), which surpasses that indicated by the rabbinical schools and fixed in casuistry. The first of the four antitheses proposed by the liturgical passage: “You have heard that it was said to the ancients: ‘You shall not kill’ (Ex 20:13; Deut 5:17) … But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother shall be subject to judgment. Whoever then says to his brother, ‘Fool’, shall be subjected to the sanhedrin; and whoever says to him, ‘Madman’, shall be subjected to the fire of hell”. Before it becomes action, violence broods in the human heart, and this instinct must be resisted. Abstaining from violence is more decisive than an action of worship done to God, who wants reconciliation between us brothers before reconciliation with him; also because reconciliation with him that no one sees is only possible for those who know how to be reconciled with the brother that each one sees (1 Jn 4:20).

Yet we feel the need to discharge the evil that dwells in us, saying little or much evil of someone. Here then is revealed the depth of the commandment: ‘Thou shalt not kill’, which also means ‘Be meek, gentle, and blessed’ (Mt 5:5).
Sexuality is the subject of the second and third antitheses. It begins with: “You shall not commit adultery” (Ex 20:14; Deut 5:18). But for Jesus this is not enough. It is necessary to reckon with the desire that dwells in the human heart: if in fact one desires possession, if with his gaze he seeks to possess the other, if with his lust he no longer sees the person, but only a thing to take possession of, then even if he does not go so far as to consume the sin he is already an adulterer in his heart. Thus Jesus shifts the blame from the seduced woman, who is always judged to be a sinner and the cause of sin, to the one who seduces and cannot resist desire. The whole body, and especially the senses through which we experience relationships with others, must be dominated, ordered, and even enlightened by the power of love, not by the excitement of the passions.
The fourth antithesis concerns truth in relationships between people. It is the eighth commandment given on Sinai: “You shall not bear false witness” (Ex 20:16; Deut 5:20). Jesus knows well what human beings experience: unable to trust in mutual relationships, they go so far as to swear, to call God as a witness (Ex 20:7; Lev 19:12; Deut 23:22). This is what happens in the world, this is what everyone does, but here is the radicality of Jesus: “I tell you never to swear, neither by heaven, because it is the throne of God, nor by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, nor by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King”. To the casuistry of tradition Jesus opposes the simplicity of language, the truth of words: Jesus invites to the responsibility of speech. One’s speech must be so limpid that one does not need to call God or holy realities to witness what one expresses.
And so when one says “yes”, let it be “yes”, and when one says “no”, let it be “no”, because the more comes from the Evil One”, who “is a liar and the father of lies” (Jn 8:44). No “double heart” (Ps 12:3), no possibility of simulation for the disciple of Jesus, no attempt to say “yes” and “no” at the same time. Jesus’ is therefore not a “new law”, a “new morality”, but is the teaching of God given to Moses, interpreted with authority, going back to the intention of the Lawgiver himself. Only Jesus, the Son of God, could do this.
However, Jesus asserts that, as the word of God, the Old Testament has divine authority and deserves total respect. For the scribes and Pharisees, the outward fulfilment of the precepts of the Mosaic law was a guarantee of man’s salvation. Jesus rejects this view. For Him, justification, or sanctification, is a grace from God. Man’s role is to cooperate with that grace by being faithful to it.
For good workers…

• We must obey God’s Law, appreciating its fundamental principle: that is, the principle of respect.

• We must be faithful to God, to ourselves, and to others. Let God’s Word of truth penetrate our minds and hearts and shape our consciences, making us men and women of integrity.

  P JOBY KAVUNGAL RCJ