In Matthew 5:17 and 19-20, Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill…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 into the kingdom of heaven.” What law is Jesus referring to?
It is natural to think that he is referring to the Ten Commandments. But actually Jesus is saying this toward the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. He began the sermon with the Beatitudes, saying that those are blessed who are humble, merciful, peacemakers and clean of heart, those who work for justice, and those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Clearly there is more going on than keeping the “thou shall not” of the Decalogue. In fact, we are called to be “the light of the world” and “the salt of the earth.” It is a matter both of not following the false gods that are the work of human hands and becoming a leaven in our daily lives and in our world that others “may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father” (5:16).
Throughout the fifth chapter of Matthew, Jesus contrasts “what was said to your ancestors,” that is, what the Mosaic Law and its interpreters said, and what Jesus says to help us to understand how to fulfill God’s intent. Jesus goes beyond the literal words of the commandments to create a new way of looking. All will be reinterpreted through the Law of Love. For example, not only should you not take the name of the name of the Lord in vain by swearing a false oath, but you should not swear an oath at all. We are called to be so honest that when we say “yes” we mean “yes” and when we say “no” we mean “no.” “Anything more is from the evil one.” (5:37). It was this integrity of one’s word that tied together the Mayo Clinic and the Sisters of St. Francis who ran the local hospital. For over 60 years there was no written agreement between the two institutions, only the word of the first Dr. Mayo and the sister superior at the time.
The commandments are good but, as Jesus knew well, they can become a stumbling block to living as God calls us to live, which is to have the heart of Jesus and be His hands, voice and feet in our world. This is why He calls us to a righteousness that is greater than that of the Pharisees. They were so law-abiding, so much letter of the law, that they condemned Jesus for healing on the Sabbath. After all, one should not work on the Sabbath, and isn’t healing work? Jesus replies, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath rather than to do evil, to save life rather than to destroy it?” (Mk 6:4).
Unfortunately, the Pharisees did not understand, for their hearts were hardened. They saw themselves as the pious ones, better than others for they knew and kept to the letter of the law. They did not understand when Jesus told them that “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mk 2:27). “If you knew what this meant, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned…” (Mt 12:7). We need to worship God, to rest from the busyness of daily life, and spend time with our families. This is part of the Sabbath rest. But compassion calls the nurse or the emergency room doctor to be on duty even if all of the local Masses take place when they are on duty.
St. Ignatius of Loyola points out that the law may become a stumbling block when it leads to such scrupulosity that we cannot accept the forgiveness of God in the sacrament of reconciliation. Shortly after his conversion, as he was praying at Manresa and attending Mass and services at the Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Monserrat, he was plagued by scrupulosity. He regretted his earlier life as a soldier caught up in pride, gambling, drinking, sword fighting and lasciviousness. Though he had made a general confession, he kept recalling new details and went back time and time again to confession. He was so plagued by his past sins that he considered throwing himself down from a tower to commit suicide. His confessor told him not to repeat his past sins again, for God had forgiven him. He was at peace for a couple of days but then the thoughts of his past sins began to plague him again. Finally, God’s grace broke through and Ignatius realized that these thoughts came not from God but from the evil spirit. This desolation had caused him to lose hope in God and not to accept God’s loving forgiveness. Once this light shone in his mind and heart, he was never plagued by scruples again.
Each one of us is called to accept God’s love for oneself so that, confident in that love, we may have the freedom to love others as we are loved. Such love is not easy, as it challenges us to forgive and care even for our enemies. On Mt. Sinai, God told the Hebrews, “Thou shall not kill.” Clearly, their original understanding of that commandment was that a Hebrew should not kill another Hebrew. They did not apply that commandment to the Canaanites. Over time they came to see that this applies to strangers in their midst and to others. But now, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, … and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift” (Mt 5:22-24).
I began to understand this passage in college. In my senior year, I often helped with one of the Sunday liturgies by getting fellow students to do the readings. This particular Sunday I asked one of the usual readers if he would read. He said he couldn’t. After Mass he told me that he had a fight with his roommate and wanted to be reconciled before going to Communion.
One of the advantages of having the sign of peace come after we have just prayed “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” is that it gives us a chance to say “I’m sorry” to those in our family we may have been out of sorts with during the week. Once reconciled, we are then ready to receive Communion – Communion with Jesus in His Body and Blood and communion with the Body of Christ in one another.
Jesus goes on, “I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for He makes His sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust” (Mt 5:44-45). Hatred, persecution and war will not change an enemy into a friend. As we learned after World War II with the Marshall Plan, it was by helping to rebuild Europe and Japan after the war that Germany and Japan became our allies. Jesus’ words about forgiveness and love are what make restorative justice healing for both those hurt by crime and those who perpetrated the hurt. Those who have watched the “Redemption Project” on cable TV have seen the truth of Jesus’ words.
Unfortunately, as St. Paul points out in Second Corinthians, a veil often lies over the hearts and minds of people – “the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4). Our present culture and the media often blind the minds even of believers to the ministry of reconciliation that we are called to live out in our lives. Some years ago, Father John Kavanaugh, a Jesuit ethicist at St. Louis University, wrote a book entitled, “Who Count As Persons?” His contention was that too often we do not see each person as loved by God, of equal dignity, and owed the same human rights as we are. Instead, we place one group against another and place ourselves in the winner’s circle. Thus, we put unborn babies and women in warring camps, rather than working to protect and foster the common good of all. We put immigrants and asylum seekers against low-wage workers, rather than fixing our asylum and immigration laws and guaranteeing a living wage to all.
Let us pray that the Holy Spirit may lift the veil from our eyes and from the minds of our legislators, that we might count all as persons and be reconciled according to the will of Christ. Only through this conversion of heart and mind will we become salt for the earth so that the light of Christ will shine for all to see.
Jesuit Father John W. Michalowski is parochial vicar at St. Peter Church in Charlotte. This is adapted from a series of homilies he gave about the Sermon on the Mount.