Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 12, 2017 - 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time - A
[Sir 15:16-21; 1 Cor 2:6-10; Matt 5:17-37]If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you. [Sirach]
Every year, or so it seems, some wag goes out on a busy city street with an official-looking clipboard to take a survey to determine how many people can recite all ten of the Ten Commandments. The results can be both amusing and disturbing, depending on one's expectations! Not many will be able to recite all ten. imagine if one was asked to recite all 613 precepts of the Mosaic Law, which included the Ten Commandments! It could be consoling, in a way, that most people would have some acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, at least, in our increasingly secular culture which has little patience for objective moral norms. But, as the Book of Sirach points out in the first scripture for today, we do have a choice to keep them or not and enjoy (or suffer) the consequences of our decision.
Jesus' preaching today in the Gospel According to Matthew assures the community that he has not come to replace that fundamental moral law, but rather to challenge all of us to go beyond it. "I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." That is quite a challenge because the scribes and Pharisees prided themselves on their meticulous observance of all those precepts! Jesus accused them of "straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel," a very colorful image.
The challenge is still with us. We may be acquainted with all the "rubrics" of the liturgy (certain folks are) and have read and memorized the Catechism of the Catholic Church (certain folks have) and consider ourselves well-versed in the Code of Canon Law (some do), and be zealous in calling others to account for what we consider violations and aberrations, etc, etc, but that is not what, in the end, will save us. After reading and hearing the gospel scripture for today, we can "fast-forward" to Matthew 25:31-45 and see what the ultimate standard is. The reason for observing the commandments as Jesus' presents them is so that we will be able to do what will ultimately create the relationship with him that saves. We cannot see him only in "the law." We must see him in our neighbor and respond accordingly. AMEN
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