Since this week is my once-a-month "light week," when I only serve at one Mass (usually the Saturday Vigil) instead of all three, I flirted with the idea of not posting a reflection on these readings. In ruminating on them today, I decided to post a very brief reflection. In our Gospel today, we hear Jesus teach thesis and antithesis- "You have heard that it was said... But I say you..."
Jesus' teaching sets forth exactly what Saint Paul writes about in our reading from his First Letter to the Corinthians, namely that the Christian is Spirit-led, not rule-driven. In other words, like the Pharisees, who, it is really important to point out, took righteousness very seriously, you can keep a thousand rules, even 613 rules deemed to be made by God either directly or indirectly by inference, and still not be righteous, not be holy as God is holy.
Now, it is important not to dismiss the Law or the rules legitimately derived from it. Jesus never does, as the beginning of today's Gospel clearly indicates: "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." Jesus never denigrates the Law. On the contrary, he reveres it.
Mistaking ends for means, it seems to me, is the fundamental problem. The end to which the Law was given to be the means is loving God and neighbor. Love is a matter of the heart. Hence, what it means to be righteous, rather than adherence to a set of rules externally imposed, while not foreswearing all rules, is a matter of your heart.
In the homily I heard last night, this Gospel reading was nicely described as "a psychology of human action." Living by rules, at least in my own experience and that of many other people to whom I've ministered over the years, psychologically speaking, often has the effect of making matters worse with regard to the things the Decalogue and Jesus, in upping the ante, prohibit. For example, food is rarely more tempting that when I've committed to fasting, even when I've only been fasting for an hour or two. It's easy to urge others to forgive those who have wronged them, but when wronged, how easy it is to start expounding on how karma is a b-i-t-c-h. I think we're all familiar with these psychodynamics.
Somewhere along the way, despite the influence of such works as The Imitation of Christ, Christians lost sight of Jesus' maxim, found at the end of today's reading- "Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one." Especially in this age of social media, how often do we Christians lose sight of such inspired exhortations like the one found in 2 Timothy: "Avoid foolish and ignorant debates, for you know that they breed quarrels"? This brings to my mind that much-used but often misattributed observation made by Mary Wollstonecraft: "Convince a man against his will, He's of the same opinion still."
Grace builds on nature. Given this, there is no way around the fact that most of us have some work to do. I know I do. While it is work I must begin and persist in doing, I will not complete it. As Saint Paul wrote: "I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil 1:6). Until that day, we move forward in hope.
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