Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) [Mt 5:17-37]
12.02.2023
Jesus’
New Law about Anger, Adultery, Divorce and Oaths
1. Theme in brief
Striking at the
root of immoral acts.
2. Focus Statement
Jesus calls us to live a
life of greater righteousness than the scribes and Pharisees in areas of human
relationships, sexual behaviour, marital fidelity and truthfulness, by striking
at the root of all evil acts.
3. Explanation of
the text
In today’s gospel, Jesus says that he has not come to “abolish” the Old
Testament Law but to “fulfil” it (5:17). The word “fulfil” means “to bring to
its intended meaning” or to fill up what is lacking in it or to complete it. He neither
contradicts nor replaces nor erases the Law.
On the contrary, he gives it a new
interpretation or meaning; or he intensifies,
internalizes and radicalizes it. He focuses not only on external evil acts like
murder, adultery, etc., but also on the wrong
attitudes and evil
motives that originate in human mind and eventually lead to those acts. Thus he asks his listeners to undertake an internal and
reverse journey in their minds from the act of murder to harbouring of anger or
resentment, and from the act of adultery to harbouring of lustful thoughts and
desires in their hearts.
Today’s gospel text shows how Jesus fulfils the Law that forbids murder,
adultery, divorce and false swearing by going beyond
the traditinal
understanding of these immoral acts in Judaism, or by deepening and radicalizing the commandments that
forbid them. In other words, he fulfils the Law by extending/enlarging it
beyond its letter to its spirit that touches upon the
inner attitudes of humans. He does it
by repeatedly contrasting the narrow understanding of the OT (“You have heard it was said….,” 5:21,27,31,33) with his new and broader
interpretation (“but I say to you….,”5:22,28,32,34). Biblical scholars call these
statements that radicalize the OT teachings ‘antitheses’ (opposite) to OT
‘theses’ (teachings). In today’s gospel we find the following of his antitheses:
An extension of the OT law that forbids (1) murder to include all sorts
of anger, resentment and revenge (5:21-22);
(2) adultery to include all lustful desires (5:27-28); (3) divorce to include life-long fidelity of the spouses to each other (5:31-32);
and (4) false swearing to exclude all oaths altogether (5:33-36). Thus he
teaches his disciples to address human tendency to nurse anger
or resentment in the heart, honour one’s matrimonial promises to be faithful to
each other unto death and follow a path of absolute honesty and
integrity.
By following this new meaning given
to the Law, Jesus wants his disciples to live a life of righteousness or holiness higher than the scribes and Pharisees in above-mentioned
four areas. For him, anger already carries murder in the form of a germ. He
wants his disciples to strike at the very root of murder - their tendency to
nurse anger, hatred,
resentment, aggressiveness, insult, revenge and all sorts of violent behaviour
against others. According to him, a sort of killing is done by heart-piercing
words, abusive language and name-calling. Calling our
brothers and sisters ‘You fool’ (5:22) may not sound highly abusive in our modern
culture; but in the Bible it means invoking a divine curse on our
brothers/sisters. Jesus advocates a remedy to hatred, resentment and vengeance
– cultivating a spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation (5:24). He says that
any genuine worship or “offering our gifts at the altar” must be sustained by
reconciliation of broken relationships with your brothers and sisters, if it
has to be acceptable to the Lord (5:23-24). He says that the need of coming to
terms with one’s opponent and taking concrete steps towards reconciliation are urgent
before the matter further deteriorates and finally leads to a disaster like
murder. He compares it to coming to terms with your accuser while still on the
way to the court so that the judge may not throw you into prison (5:25).
Similarly, Jesus asks his disciples to strike at the root of committing adultery
which can be traced to entertaining lustful desires in one’s heart; of divorce which
is in marital infidelity. Further, he teaches that oaths and swearing are
totally unnecessary and unwarranted if there is a general atmosphere
of trust and
honesty. They come into the picture because of human tendencies of lying, untruthfulness
and dishonesty.
4. Application to life
In today’s gospel, which is a part
of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we get a glimpse of the attitudes, intentions and motives
a disciple needs to imbibe. He teaches us
that we cannot be counted as citizens of a new society he has come to establish
(called the Kingdom of Heaven or God) if we are content with only external
observance of the Law like the
Pharisees and fail to change or purify their inner (sinful) attitudes which are the roots of all evil
actions. Whereas the Pharisees and scribes speak about sour fruits
(evil actions), Jesus
wants his disciples to strike at the roots of all sins or wrongdoings, found in
their hearts from which evil actions proceed.
Here Jesus proposes a new way of
life that goes beyond
the teachings of the OT, and a new righteousness that exceeds the one practiced
by the scribes and Pharisees in the OT. He
neither abolishes the Law, nor keeps it as it is. Thus he upholds the principle
of a continuity of the old with a change, that is, with a new meaning added to it. He seeks to radicalize
it by broadening and deepening its meaning. Thus he fulfils
or fills up the missing meaning in it or completes it. For Jesus, LOVE
is the supreme law and all other laws should be subordinated to it. According to
him salvation is not guaranteed by mere external observance of law but by making love
as our guiding principle in human relationships and keeping the spirit
of the law instead of only the letter. The
greater righteousness advocated by him under God’s Kingdom goes beyond external
observation to include a change of attitudes and heart, and a purification of inner motives.
Among the four OT laws radicalized
by Jesus in today’s gospel – namely, murder, adultery, divorce and oaths – let
us take only the first one for our reflections, namely,
“You shall not murder”. According to him, just avoiding murder is
not enough. Anger is the root of murder. When we overcome or master
anger, murder or any violence becomes impossible. Neither
‘murder’ is done by knives, guns and terrorists’ bombs alone nor is violence
present only in the bomb or in the killer’s gun. Rather. it is deeply rooted human heart. The fruits are
seen when we nurse resentment and revenge against our offenders which goes for days, months and sometimes for
years. According to Jesus the spirit of this fifth commandment goes much deeper
than external act of murder – transformation of a bitter and vengeful heart in which it is rooted. The evil roots of resentmernt,
vengeance or retalitaion must be tackled (uprooted) so that the evil fruits will not emerge. We
observe an atmosphere of all-prevailing violence in our society that causes a
real threat to human life. Because of its omnipresence, experts speak of a culture of
violence existing and accepted as normal by an incresing number of
people in our world today. Here the term ‘culture’ refers to attitudes and
behaviour which accept violence as inevitable to solve human and social problems
without considering its terrible consequences. In the midst of such an
attitude, Jesus invites us to create a culture of active non-violence which is
life-promoting. His teaching motivates us to take active steps to overcome
violent tendencies within us and in our communities, instead of merely feeling
sad about it.
We can do it in various ways, such as (1) by consciously cultivating non-violent language in our speech; (2) by following the path of non-aggressive behaviour in our personal lives; (3) by cooperating with so many good willed people in our world who promote non-violence; and (4) by promoting non-violent language and behaviour among children. I am shocked to hear about a video game played by children in their mobile phone: If you shoot down your neighbour’s dog you gain 50 points; if you shoot down your neighbour 100 points and if you shoot down your parents 200 points. See, how the culture of violence is subtly injected into the tender minds of children! Listen to the vulgar, abusive and violent language used by a number of people, including children – much worse than the words “You fool” used in today’s gospel (5:22). Think of the name-calling done on people of a different race or ethnic group in any society, and the domestic violence perpetrated against women and domestic helps. Our everyday language is full of violent words such as “bash”, “bang”, “smash”, “thrash”, etc. Many of us say: “So and so should be thoroughly hammered…. Shoot/ kick/ thrash him/her….”, etc. Often we approve and laugh over such language of spitting poison of bitterness when we hear others speaking against those who have wronged them. Children imitate these things from their parents and companions.
When we read about the first murder recorded
in the Bible – in the story of Cain and Abel (Gen 4:1-16) – we come to know how
Cain’s envy
and anger towards his brother Abel ended up in hatred and cold-blooded murder. We have to
admit that there is a Cain sitting inside of each one of us who broods over the
wrong done by others, imagines and plans terrible things against those who have
wronged or offended us. This Cain is nothing else but our own mind that gives
in to aggressive
and violent behaviour against our brothers and sisters. This story makes us
deeply aware that there is something of the wild beast in all of us lurking
at the door, but we must “master it” as the Bible says (Gen 4:7). If
violence which is inherent in human nature is not contained or mastered, it will
create havoc in human/social relationships and contribute to the all-prevailing
culture of violence. Like Cain we too try to cover-up our guilt and refuse to
accept responsibility
for our violent behaviour by saying: "Am I my brother's keeper (Gen
4:9)?" God’s voice is clear to us: “Are
you not responsible for your brothers and sisters? Are you not answerable to
your God and society for the prevailing culture of violence in the world?”
Anger and resentment have roots in our rational nature. Rationally we brood over the injury or harm done, or hurt caused to us by evildoers/ adversaries and demand satisfaction for it. Violent and aggressive behaviour in words and deeds is a common means of dealing with injured pride. But the fact is, even after evildoers get their punishment, including imprisonment or capital punishment – as it happens in some serious court cases – people’s anger, hatred and revenge does not end. Let us take Jesus’ example. While undergoing the agony of crucifixion, Jesus made an excuse for the evil action of his crucifiers below the cross by praying for them to his Father with the words that they did not know what they were doing (Lk 23:34). Though they knew that they were crucifying an innocent man, he made an excuse for their action. Moved by this example, can we also admit our ignorance of the motives, background and emotional state of our offenders? We really do not know why so and so behaved with us in such a nasty manner, or was rude to us. Jesus lays down the principle of compassion for the weakness of such people which leads to forgiveness from the heart.
Jesus further instructs us to cultivate a spirit of forgiveness of and reconciliation with those who have offended us as well as those whom we have offended (5:23-26). This, according to him, is an indispensable precondition for Christian praise and worship. Worship of God cannot be performed by an impure heart infected with resentment, bitterness and revenge. He wants that true worship of the heart must be sustained by brotherly/sisterly love and reconciliation. He gives the example of an accused man taking step to reconcile with his accuser while on the way to the court (5:25-26), to emphasize the point that the offended party should take the first step towards reconciliation rather than the offender.
It is easier to offer sacrifices and attend religious services than to forgive an offender from one’s heart; is it not? It is easier to avoid committing an act of murder than removing anger, resentment, hatred and bitterness from the heart; is it not? Heart of hearts many of us are happy that we have never committed murder and adultery; hence are righteous or holy before God. But today’s gospel asks those of us who consider ourselves righteous and “spiritual-minded” to answer this question: “Have you not ‘murdered’ the good reputation of your opponents/ offenders/ adversaries through defamation, slander, character assassination and using abusive language against them? By spitting venom against them and going after their blood, have you not ‘murdered’ them in your heart? How many people have you stabbed, not in the front but in the back?”
Harbouring hatred is also serious enough because murder is conceived by hatred. There are people who nurse so much hatred in the heart that they would have preferred to murder their opponents or enemies. But they refrain from doing so because of fear of punishment (from God or from the court of law), social stigma and losing social respectability. Hatred and crying for vengeance is like committing murder in one’s heart. Does Jesus’ teaching that we should reconcile with our opponents and enemies before we begin to worship God or offer our gifts on the altar make any church-goer return half the way? Of course, we need not take it literally. But Jesus asks us to examine how many times and how often we have offered our gifts on the altar with all resentment, vengeance, enmity and hatred in our heart.
Again, what is the use if we pat ourselves on the back saying that we have never committed adultery, but continue to lust after other men or women, and become slaves to cyber-sex or pornography in the media especially in the internet?
5. Response to God's Word
Do our religious practices influence our inner attitudes and motives? Do we nurse resentment and revenge against our offenders and refuse to talk with them for days, months and sometimes for years? Do we feel we too are directly or indirectly responsible for the prevailing culture of violence in the world? What steps we would like to take to promote a culture of active non-violence? Is our worship sustained by brotherly/sisterly love and reconciliation?
6. A prayer
Purify our hearts and inner attitudes, O Lord. Teach us the language of love and the need to cultivate diligently non-violent and non-aggressive communication. Give us courage and humility to overcome the prevailing culture of violence in our world by seeking the path of forgiveness and reconciliation. Amen.
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