As we continue our journey with Matthew, we must keep in mind the beginning of The Sermon on the Mount, which we have already heard about, in order that we may better understand what follows. The aim is to arouse in the hearers’ new concepts of the Law and morals. Matthew of course, addresses his Gospel to believers who have already experienced the good news. They know they are called to live like Jesus, under the eyes of him they name “Our Father” and to become “perfect” as their heavenly Father is “perfect.” Therefore, to remind them of the demands of discipleship makes good sense.
Freedom and responsibility are two prerogatives of the human person. While being the most strongly stated and claimed, they are also contested and recognised as curtailed by an ensemble of psychological, social and other factors. Freedom of choice being a free gift from God not only has its responsibilities, it also has its pitfalls, knowing the weakness of man who is easily led into temptation by the evil one. Yes, the human being is free, but free of what and up to what point? How is this freedom expressed and exercised? Is it by the possibility—and the right—to choose everything and anything? These are some of the serious questions that arise as soon as we speak of the freedom and responsibility of a human being. Simple and final answers soon run into objections, into experiences that call everything into question. The debate bounces back and forth again and again.
We see in the First reading from The Book of Ecclesiasticus the human person has the responsibility of choosing between good and evil, “fire and water,” life and death.” But how shall we evaluate what is at stake in the options offered? Is the human person left with only free determination, with the tragic risk of erroneous judgement? No, because there are commandments revealed by God, to guide us, so that we can freely choose to obey them. This does not mean that we practically abdicate our freedom of choice to become slavishly, blindly obedient to the law external to us. To be free is to decide knowingly. “Those who fear the Lord” share in his wisdom. Therefore, they follow his commandments, his law conveying divine wisdom, freely, with a freedom like God’s.
“Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord!”
We have seen that the Saviour had showered his disciples with a multitude of teachings, but he kept secret certain teachings that, he said, could not be borne at the moment, but he added that everything would be taught us at the coming of the Spirit.
The prologue to the Sermon on the Mount has been proclaimed to us previously, over the last two weeks. Now we hear the continuation, beginning with a statement of intent and a general principle. Jesus’ words and positions, as recorded by Matthew, answer in fact the twofold question: What attitude should we take concerning the traditional commandments and what is the relationship between “righteousness” taught us by what we call the Old Testament and that preached by Jesus. Jesus states with the utmost clarity that he has come not to abolish the law and the prophets, “not to abolish but to fulfil.” “And he solemnly adds: “I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.” Without question, the Law is perennial, but its future is not that of a sealed text, of a dead letter. Jesus has come so that all its potential may be unfolded, and that it may be understood and observed in the Spirit that enlivens it more and more, and in order to “fulfil” it, to take it to its completion. From now on, whoever rejects one of the least of the commandments of the Law and teaches others to do so will be least in the Kingdom of heaven. On the contrary, whoever observes the least commandments and teaches them to others will be declared great in the Kingdom of heaven.
The judgement must be understood in connection with the Beatitudes and in the general context of the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus refers to those he addresses as “blessed,” “Your reward in heaven will be great.” Throughout his Gospel, Matthew insists on the necessity to act according to what has been taught. It is the indispensable condition for entering the Kingdom. But we must also remember that most terrible warning: “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.” Or still worse: “Better that they had not been born at all.” (Matt 18:6) To give a bad example by contemptuously disobeying a commandment even a “little” one, is a scandal, worse still is to teach others to do the same. The warning addressed by Jesus to the Scribes and the Pharisee’s is directed also to all the disciples of Christ throughout the ages, ourselves included, and especially the community leaders. The practice of justice specified by the Law, down to its least commandments, is the condition of the entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.
“You have heard that it was said…..But I say to you……” In saying this Jesus seems to announce more than a change of a letter or a part of a letter in the text of the Law. Claiming his sovereign authority—“ I have come” — doesn’t Jesus replace what “was said to” the “ancestors,” revealed by God, with a new teaching. This would contradict Matthew’s constant thought. He never speaks of a “new” law, of a “new”commandment. For him, “it is the old that becomes new and the new has worth only inasmuch as it expresses afresh the old.” We must have a closer look.
Jesus cites three “commandments” forbidding murder, adultery and oaths. But he says to be angry with brothers or sisters, to insult them, deserves judgement at the bench; to curse them makes one liable to the fire of hell. To look at someone with lust is already adultery. To utter any oath is not only useless but comes from the evil one, since “Yes” or “No” must mean “Yes” or “No.’ Obviously, there is no contradiction with what “was said to” the “ancestors.” Jesus teaches that evil actions have their roots in the heart and that it is not sufficient to evaluate actions alone.
To be angry with one’s brothers or sisters is to attack them. To insult them is to wound them and diminish them in the eyes of others. To curse them is to deliver them to evil. All this partakes of homicide (murder), “Thou shalt not kill.” In any event charity is damaged. The gravity of these feelings and actions is such that it bars access to worship. Before presenting our offering at the altar, we must go without delay to be reconciled with the brother or the sister who has something against us. Even though, for our part, we have nothing against them, there is no need to inquire who is in the wrong. When we remember, even at the last minute, a failure of charity, we must take the first step of reconciliation. The offering can and must wait.
The teaching gives its full meaning to the sign of peace before communion. The brother or the sister whom I do not know, but who is there by me, represents in his or her anonymity all the others with whom I acknowledge to be at peace. But if my “opponent “were in the assembly, I could not receive communion without “first” going to exchange with him or her the sign of peace, which is not and must not be sheer formalism.
What Jesus says concerning adultery is not only the application of the principle stating that evil desire carries the germ of the culpable action. The question here is about a man “who looks at a woman with lust.” According to the Jewish Law in its strict sense, only the woman could be guilty of adultery. For his part, by consorting with a married woman, a man was only guilty of an offence against another’s property not against his own wife. (Exod 20:17) There is no need to be scandalised by this ancient legislation, for Jesus sees the inequality of the situation; for him there is no difference between woman and man: the same duties bind the one as the other. In marriage “the two have become one.”
Then Jesus adds, (which should not be taken literally): “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away,” the same thing applies to the hand etc. “for it will do less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body thrown into hell.” Of course, with this manner of speaking Jesus attests to the price one must pay, not to fall into temptation
“It was said, ‘whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce’ But I say to you, everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” We move here into a very complex area of theology and cannot possibly do it justice in such a few words, sufficient to say here, one thing is certain from Jesus’ words, the Christian law forbids the repudiation of one’s wife, whereas the Jewish Law did not. Jesus goes farther than the Jewish Law. For him, “divorce is like adultery with forewarning” we must therefore reject everything that could lead to it , beginning with lust and evil desires. Matthew will expand on this in Chapter 19 of his Gospel where he strongly affirms the indissolubility of marriage.
In conclusion then, God never considered human beings, whom he created, children incapable of discernment. By creating them in his own image, God willed them free and responsible. From the beginning, God judged them capable of freely and wisely choosing the peaceful and happy future the Creator placed in their reach. When they sinned by listening to the tempter and making a bad decision, God revealed commandments to serve as markers on the road of life. God constantly encouraged but did not force them to remain faithful. The God-given Law is not like a code fixed once and for all in its letter by a faraway lawgiver. It is an expression and transmission of divine wisdom. Those who meditate on it and live accordingly acquire that wisdom which is not of this world, but which leads them into God’s very own mystery.
“Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord!”
