YOU CAN KEEP THE COMMANDMENTS

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

According to this Sunday’s first reading, which comes from the book of Sirach, we are free to choose between good and evil, to follow the commandments or to reject them. 

If you wish, you can keep the commandments,

  to behave faithfully is within your power. (Sir 15:15)

We should not blame others for the wrong decisions we have made. Nowadays, there is a huge wave of people who present themselves as victims, claiming to have the right to compensation for the wrongs of the past. They live complaining and accusing others as if the others were supposed to live their lives in their place. However, blaming others for the situation we are in will not take us out of it. We must accept responsibility for our own lives and the consequences of our actions. God does not lead us to sin, but calls us to do good and live a responsible life.

In the Gospel, Jesus deals with our attitude towards de commandments. Paul wrote to the Galatians that “Christ has set us free” (Gal 5:1). For those who understand all laws as oppressive, that statement may sound like an affirmation that we don’t need the law anymore. In that case, we may be surprised by Jesus’ words in Matthew: “Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.” As Jesus speaks about them, the commandments are guidelines to keep us on the right path the path that leads to life and salvation. 

Concerning the commandments, Jesus warns us that we should not imitate the scribes and the Pharisees: “For I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.” They cared about the law and tried to keep it with all rigour. We may say that, about the law, they were fundamentalists. In that attitude, they forgot that the law is at the service of man, keeping with his dignity and protecting justice and peace. Before God, the inner attitude is the most important and righteous behaviour must come from the heart. If the heart gets corrupted, the external fulfilment of the law becomes an act of hypocrisy. The commandments must be kept with a pure heart because the pure in heart shall see God (Mt 5:8). The transgression of all the commandments begins in the heart and may be carried out in external actions that will be punishable in courts of law. Jesus is most radical in his demand to comply with the commandments in the most hidden recesses of our souls.