But I Say To You

6th Sunday, A

Well. We have a lot of stuff in the gospel today. It’s a collection of the moral teachings of Jesus that makes up part of the Sermon on the Mount in the gospel of St. Matthew.

I don’t think it would be possible to say something about all of it adequately, but perhaps we can find a thread that unites all these sayings of Jesus.

Let’s begin with the refrain with which Jesus introduces these teachings: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors … but I say to you.”

Jesus gives a new commandment by means of a deepening of the teaching that already existed.

We see this process in a very clear way in the gospel of St. John when Jesus, during the Last Supper, gives the new commandment of love. He says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another.”

But in what sense is this new? We find the commandment of love in the Old Testament, especially the love of God and love for our neighbor.

What’s going on is that Jesus takes this teaching that already existed and deepens it into a new commandment.

And here’s the key: this deepening is Jesus Christ himself, his divine person. We see this clearly in his next words in the gospel of St. John: “As I have loved you, so love one another.”

It is the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ that inspires us and makes us able to love one another with the very love that is God himself.

So, religion is no longer a simple question of ‘God commands’ and ‘we obey.’ There is no longer a simple ‘you shall not kill’ or ‘you shall not commit adultery’ because now the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ is in play, working within us, and a simple commandment has become something of the heart, a matter of love.

It is precisely in this sense that we can understand well the sayings of Jesus that we have in the gospel today. For example:

“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”

With Jesus, the old commandment, you shall not kill, which treats only of exterior behavior, becomes something deeper, a matter of the heart. If we want to fulfill well this commandment against killing and violence, we have to uproot the anger and violence that we unfortunately sometimes harbor in our hearts. And this is a conversion that is possible only if we allow the love of God to make a dwelling within us.

This is the newness of the teaching of Jesus. God does not ask first of all for some kind of right behavior, but for a conversion of heart that he himself wishes to work within us.

Therefore, the radical nature of these sayings of Jesus should not frighten us, sayings like,

“Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. … Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. … If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away.”

If these things were nothing but commandments from on high, there would be no hope for us. Rather, they are an invitation to a profound conversion, an abandoning of ourselves to the love of God which is the only force strong enough to fulfill commandments that go so deep.

It’s only when we learn to let Jesus Christ love in us and as us, that we will find ourselves able to live these radical teachings of Jesus.

So, let us nurture a dwelling for the love God within ourselves. Let us make of our hearts a home for the Holy Spirit, that the love of Jesus Christ becomes in us the love with which we love one another.