GOD’S COMMANDS ARE NOT DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW

VI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Matthew 5:17-37

I still remember one day in a seminar with the youth discussing boy girl relationships and the goodness of remaining virgin up to marriage, one of them told me: “Alitufyenga mu kutulesha ifitusansamusha”. God is not being fair forbidding what gives us joy.

This is a common attitude in the world in which we live today. The commandments are seen as oppressive and outdated. People want to decide for themselves what is right and what is wrong, and they reject anybody who imposes rules on them. Many see the commandments as impossible to follow and to obey, because they are beyond the common person. However, they forget that it is impossible to live in a society without rules, and in fact our modern societies are full of rules controlling most aspects of our daily lives, even though we think that we have more freedom than previous generations. In our modern societies, we have lost the sense of community and are dominated by individualism, in which I set myself up as the rule. We exclude God from our lives and from our society, turning the values upside down and then suffer the consequences. We don’t care about the dignity of the others, we only care about profit and influence and power. We don’t care about love, and our hearts are full of lust. Self-indulgence becomes the rule. And when we become our own gods with our own set of values we walk on the way that leads to self-destruction. Humankind is travelling in a dangerous road that may lead to annihilation.

God’s commandments uphold our human dignity and lead to freedom and fulfilment. They are not old fashioned and they are not difficult or nearly impossible to follow. The first reading tells us that: “If you wish, you can keep the commandments, to behave faithfully is within your power.” (Sir 15:15). It is a question of choice: God “has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose. Before each person are life and death, and whichever one chooses will be given.” (Sir 15:16-17)

We should not blame God for the troubles we are in, because they are of our own making. And the book of Sirach  warns us that “He never commanded anyone to be godless, he has given no one permission to sin.” (Sir 15:20)

A wisdom that comes from God

In the world, we need a new kind of wisdom - “not a philosophy of our age, still less of the masters of our age”, because that has shown itself incapable of giving guidance and meaning to  our lives. We need the “hidden wisdom of God” revealed to us in Jesus Christ - a “wisdom that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began” (1 Cor 2:7),

Doing the will of God

Speaking about the commandments, Jesus said that he did not “come to abolish the Law or the Prophets”, “but to complete them” (Mt 5:17). He did not come to make it easier, but more demanding. And he warns us that “if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20). We may ask what that means, since the Pharisees and scribes were very strict in following the law. With several examples, Jesus explained that we must follow the spirit of the law to the end. The Pharisees were legalists, sticking to the letter of the law. Jesus wants us to pay attention to the will of God, being always ready to obey him.

In his examples, Jesus points out that 

• the Law forbids everything that destroys the dignity of the other and not only murder. The Law demands that we solve conflicts in a peaceful manner and that we must find ways of reconciliation.
• forbidding adultery, the Law forbids the lust that leads to betrayal and adultery, transforming the other into a sexual object.
• divorce is forbidden, except for the cases of unlawful marriage.
• We must be truthful in everything that we say, having no need of swearing, putting ourselves under oath. Our words must share in the truthfulness of the Word, who is the truth.