Homily for the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Feb. 12, 2023. Gospel of St. Matthew 5:17-37. Theme: A New Heart & A New Spirit
In today’s Gospel, Jesus begins his lengthy Sermon on the Mount by assuring us that He has not come to do away with the religion of Israel, what we Christian call the Old Testament, but to bring it to its completion. You see, there are many people who think that Jesus came to make a clean break with Judaism and to establish in its place a completely brand new religion. But this simply isn’t true and Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel make this perfectly clear. He came to fulfill, not to destroy.
What He is saying is that in God’s plan Judaism was meant to develop into Christianity. With the coming of the Messiah there was meant to be a transition of the Old Israel into the New Israel, with membership no longer restricted just to Jews but now open to all who place their trust in Jesus Christ as Messiah and Lord. And, indeed, it originally started out that way but, as we all know, it didn’t end up that way due to human sinfulness and religious infighting. By the end of the first century after Christ, Jews who believed in Jesus as the Messiah were expelled from the synagogues through the Mediterranean world and Christianity began to arise as a separate and distinct religion.
I think it’s important for us to know our roots and to realize that Jesus came to reform and renew the religion of Israel not to replace it. Because we, too, are the spiritual children of Abraham and the Old Testament is part of our story. That’s why we still read from it in our liturgies and why we revere it as being the inspired Word of God along with the New Testament. But there is a huge difference between us when it comes to the role of the Law, which means the Commandments, in our relationship with God and this is what Jesus is focusing on in today’s Gospel.
You see, over the centuries, the Law became everything to the Jewish people because it preserved their identity in the midst of a pagan world that was closing in all around them. Being Jewish became intimately tied up with external actions and if you ask Orthodox Jews today they will tell you that Judaism is more about what you do rather than what you believe. This emphasis upon rules of identity became so important that the original 10 Commandments were expanded over time to become 613 laws of proper Jewish behavior. And to assure compliance, the people were constantly spied upon, watched very closely by the Jewish leadership, to make sure that they were observing every little detail of the Law. We see this happening all the time in the Gospels when Jesus has his many encounters with the Scribes and Pharisees.
Jesus was constantly preaching that the Commandments were never intended to be a set of detailed laws that were a burden too heavy for anyone to carry! And in today’s Gospel He breathes new life into them, calling us back to their original purpose. He reminds us that our observance of them must come from the heart if it is to be more genuine than that of the Jewish leaders. You see, their idea of morality was totally legalistic, based on going through the motions. If on the outside everything looked good, if everything was done according to the letter of the Law, they considered themselves righteous or holy. Where their hearts might be in all of this didn’t come into the picture. This was the false understanding of Commandments, the corruption of religious observance, that Jesus came to reform and renew.
He taught them in a new way that went much deeper than simply obeying the letter of the law. For example, as we just heard in the Gospel, He told us not to be satisfied simply because we have not murdered anyone, but to dig deeper and see if we are harboring anger or resentment in our hearts. He said to not be satisfied just because we haven’t committed perjury, but to dig deeper and see if we are guilty of gossip or lying, of using the gift of speech to build people up or to tear them down. And in our marriages, the Lord informs us to think beyond the physical parameters of adultery and dig deeper to see if we are being faithful emotionally, internally, towards the one to whom we have pledged our love. So you see, He is not doing away with good external behavior, but is telling us that we will be hypocrites if the outside doesn’t match what’s on the inside.
Jesus calls us to embrace and live the Commandments with a new outlook, with a new mindset. He tells us that if we truly want to observe the law of God and be His reflection to others, then we need to begin by focusing on the reform and renewal of our hearts. But He knows that we cannot do this of our own power. He knows that while our intentions may be good, the lure of sin and selfishness within us pulls us down and so He gives us a share in the Holy Spirit who makes us new from the inside out. That the Messiah would do this for us was prophesied 600 years before Christ by the prophet Ezekiel who said: “He will give you a new heart and place a new Spirit within you; He will exchange your heart of sin for a heart of love and put his Spirit within you to enable you to follow his decrees”. (Ez 36:26-27)
Jesus first gave us this Spirit at Baptism and increased His presence within us at Confirmation. But He and the Spirit continue making our transformation possible every time we go to Mass and worship with open hearts. In a little while you'll see Father place his hands over the gifts of bread and wine, and you will see me bow as he does so, because this is when we welcome the Spirit, who comes down upon the gifts to begin their transformation into the Sacrament of the Real Presence of Christ. And then when we receive Holy Communion with mindfulness and devotion, that same Spirit continues his work of transforming us from the inside out through the Body and Blood of Christ, who enters us as medicine for our spiritual sickness, healing balm for our wounded souls and strength in our human weakness.
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