Currently, we have been watching the news on television and reading news articles on our iPhone and in the newspapers. And we have been disturbed, disappointed, saddened and turned off with what is happening to our government, to our society and to our country. As we personally think how the laws of our government affect our lives, the scriptures for this sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time also focuses on laws; God’s laws. In the Responsorial Psalm, it says, “Instruct me, O Lord in the way of your statues, that I may exactly observe them. Give me discernment, that I may observe your law and keep it with all my heart.”
In Matthew’s gospel, “Jesus said to his disciples; Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”
In our society today, people have somehow gotten the idea that any law or laws that interfere with our particular favorite activity, or any law that get in the way of our pleasures or our lives is unjust. Those laws must be changed. The gospel states, “You shall not kill: and whoever kills will be liable to judgement.” In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision called Roe v. Wade ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman’s liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. Millions of babies are aborted each year. I wondered if one of those babies would have been the very one to discover the cure for cancer.
What good does the law serves? Law, in particular, the natural moral law as expressed in the Ten Commandments, is like the operating system for our human person. It’s a fact that if we tinker with the operating system of our computer system, it won’t boot up properly. Likewise, when we violate the operating rules that God has established for our spirits, souls and bodies, we damage ourselves. When we injure someone, there is a complementary injury to our own soul. Lie to another, or to yourself, and you enter a world in which Truth is relative to your feelings and self-interest. Ultimately, we eventually lose track of what is true and what is false.
The world says that adultery is wrong.
Jesus says that having impure, lustful thoughts about another person is just as dangerous. So dangerous, in fact, that we better do whatever it takes to keep our minds and lives pure for Him.
When Jesus says to gouge out your eye or cut off your hand, he is stressing how important it is to keep our lives pure for Christ. It all starts with the mind.
Jesus also tells us that building character continues through our relationships and addresses the relationship with our spouse.
Jesus knows how destructive infidelity is and how it can destroy the marriage bond. Jesus is not condemning those who have been through divorce. Rather Jesus is lifting up the wonderful blessing of marriage and telling us that if we want to be people of light in a dark world, then we must be people of character who honor the marriage bond.
The relationship with enemies: We are not to seek revenge. That belongs to the Lord. The world seeks and even approves of revenge. But, Jesus says that our character should be different. If we love only those who love us, then how are we different from the world? Since Jesus loves all, and we want to be like Jesus, we must show love to all. It does not mean we have to be a doormat for others. It does not mean that we have to tolerate evil acts against us. It means we are to respond to our enemies like Christ would.
How we handle our relationships with spouses, associates, and enemies really reflects how we handle our relationship with Christ. When it is our time to stand before God, our relationship with Christ is the only thing that will matter.
Deacon Ron Paglinawan
