Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sirach 15:15–20
Psalm 119:1–2, 4–5, 17–18, 33–34
1 Corinthians 2:6–10
Matthew 5:17–37
Human freedom is a mystery. The Scriptures are clear: We find blessing when we exercise our freedom by choosing to follow the law of God. We are truly free when we choose to surrender to the plan that God maps out for us.
Many will say, when they make choices that are sinful, “I am only human,” as if to justify giving in to sin by suggesting that we are innately too weak to resist temptation. The vision of the human person presented consistently in the Scriptures insists that God gives us the capacity to follow His direction. “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live; he has set before you fire and water; to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.”
The Sermon on the Mount continues to present Jesus as the new Moses, offering God’s law but with a more interior perspective. External observance can supply a kind of discipline that is needed for human beings to be consistent in following the law. However, Jesus presents a different approach to fulfillment.
Mere external obedience does not reach into the profound purpose of God’s law. What is required of the person who wants to follow Jesus is to become more radical in fulfillment. Body and mind reach so far. It is the depth of the spirit, the very heart of the human person, that reaches for God’s true intention.
St. Paul speaks of the wisdom that transcends human wisdom. The revelation of God’s plan, given to those who are open to receive it, is beyond what this world can offer: “God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory, and which none of the rulers of this age knew, … as it is written: ‘What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him,’ this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”
The invitation of the Scriptures is to open to an understanding of the world and an exercise of human freedom that will accomplish far more than any plan we might create for ourselves. In a culture that nowadays is all about planning and judging “feasibility” and “sustainability,” according to worldly standards, this sounds foolhardy. Our aim must be toward something “out of this world” or we will miss the mark, the very definition of sin.
Someone once commented, “I do not expect to go to heaven right away when I die. I am aiming for purgatory.” The wry retort that asks for a better response was, “What if you miss?” If we aim for something less than full freedom, we can remain enslaved. If we aim for heaven, we may well still have to endure the “fires of purgation” in preparation for entry into the kingdom, but by aiming for it, we are more likely to “end up” on the right side of freedom.
Jesus is never satisfied with what many say about how things are being done, “but we have always done it that way.” There is always a better way. He says directly, “You have heard that it was said, … but I say to you ….” In other words, “Aim higher!”
We fulfill the law of God not by emphasizing a merely external observance. That kind of obedience leaves us in our weakness. Rather, in freedom and, as Pope Francis suggests, being willing to fail in our attempt, we aim for a more radical response.
Our goal is to be witnesses to the transcendence of heaven over the things of earth, of time and space. Eternity beckons. Eye and ear and heart cannot fathom what is offered, but we can choose to commit, and God’s own Spirit will accomplish greater things than we could ask for or imagine. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!