HOMILY FOR THE 6TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR A.
THEME: FUFILMENT OF THE LAW.
BY: Fr. Jude Nnadi
Readings: Sirach 15: 15-20; 1 Cor. 2: 6-10; Matthew 5:17-37
“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, you shall not kill; but I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement.
You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
It was also said, whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife unless the marriage is unlawful causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Again, you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one” (Mt 5).
Sisters and brothers, in this Sunday’s liturgy and the next Matthew leads us on a journey within a passage from the Sermon on the Mount commonly referred to as “the six antitheses”. Jesus, through these schemes of contrasts defines the relationship between the Gospel and the way in which the Old Testament law was interpreted and lived: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors… but I say to you”. Six themes were addressed: murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, the law of retaliation, love of neighbor.
Jesus, before enumerating the first four of these series of oppositions in our gospel reading today, offers us a paradoxical declaration: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 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, until all things have taken place.” God does not contradict himself. The Old Testament remains the word of God with value intact for Jesus. But how is the seaming controversy justified, punctuated by that contrast between a “past” and the present “I say to you”? The answer is to be found not in the Old Testament itself but in its reductive interpretation by the “scribes and Pharisees.” It is therefore a matter of condemning a dangerous attitude that Jesus sees as present in Judaism, which will undermine as Paul will remind us even the Christian faithful.
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This attitude arises from a literalist and legalistic reading of the word of God. If the Decalogue says: “Do not kill”, it is enough to stop at the letter of the request, avoiding killing anyone. If the precept imposes not to commit adultery, it is sufficient that you do not have sexual relation with a married woman. If the rule concerns divorce, it is enough to follow the juridical prescriptions and if the commandment condemns perjury in trial, it is enough to abide by it according to the indications given.
Jesus, in the authentic spirit of biblical prophecy, breaks this pattern dear even to his followers who proudly beat their chest and confess the usual: “I have not killed anyone, I have not stolen, I have not committed adultery, I have not deceived anyone”. Jesus rediscovers the Decalogue in its radicality: the commandments are only essential signs of a total interior attitude which must involve all daily choices. One is not only righteous in some extreme acts or in some hours of the day, but one is always and totally consecrated to the love of one’s neighbors by respecting and helping them, one is always and totally consecrated to matrimonial love in a full donation, one is always and totally consecrated to the truth even in the little things.
In this light we understand that “fulfillment” Christ says he came to reveal. With this turning point, religion is transformed from the mere observance of a code of circumscribed norms into a total adherence of conscience, of one’s existence to God. Against the 613 precepts of the Law numbered by the rabbis (248 as many as there are bones in the body and 365 as many as there are days in the year) Christ, quoting precisely the Old Testament – reminds us that there is only one commandment and yet it embraces every act and every instant of life: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind and you shall love your neighbor as yourself. on these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 22: 37-40).
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