
In today’s world, there seems to be gross insecerity to laws and orders that guides humanity. The freedom of humanity has been trampled by irresponsibility, laws have been trivialised and morality has been watered down. These lapses cut across the religious, political, social and other spheres of life. However, today’s liturgy, especially the first reading and the Gospel instructs us to heed unto God’s laws and ordinances in truth and in spirit. As Christians, we are called to walk in obedience to God’s command.
The statutes of God serves as a guide for our conduct, showing us the right and pleasing ways to please Him, to follow Him and coexist peacefully with our neighbours. But then, how and what does it mean to follow God’ law and abide in his presence? Today’s responsorial psalm gives us the clue that “whoever does what is just, speaks the truth from his heart, whoever does no wrong to a neighbour… but honours those who fear the Lord. My dear friends in Christ, what makes our following God’s law meritorious and salvific is when we do it with a good heart.
The heart is the core of the human person. Our act of worship must be the expression of an interior reality that is profound in nature, a demonstration of fundamental conviction in the deep recesses of the human person’s heart. We are called to a deeper understanding and experience of following God. We need interior conviction and commitment that God’s command is good in itself and deserves to be obeyed because its aim is to ensure our well-being and eternal happiness. In the Gospel reading, Jesus shows us that mere external observance, exterior compliance and mere conformity to the law, even His law, is not sufficient for a true disciple, for we can sin even if we never commit external act. We can keep the letter of the law and yet fail woefully where the spirit is concerned.
We can observe the law externally and violate it internally, thus sinning in thoughts, desires, motives, and attitudes. Sin comes from our hearts , it is the root of our actions. As it is said: “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” The morality of an act is to be judged more from the interior disposition of the heart than from the external expression of the act. Right behaviour must first and above all be a response from the heart to what God is asking of us. Jesus proposes a virtue which goes deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, a virtue in depth, from the heart. If our depths are sound, if the heart is good, then the choices which come from the heart will be good.
The converse is also true. If we harbour bitterness in our heart towards someone, we will inevitably make choices which damage and hurt them. If we cultivate envy in our heart towards someone, we will tend to make choices which devalue them. Beyond our behaviour lie our choices and beyond them lies the heart in which our choices are rooted. Only the Spirit who reaches the depths of God can really reach our own depths. It is the Spirit of God who renews and transforms our heart. “God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Rom 5:5). Little wonder the second reading tells us that every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above.
Hence, Jesus Christ through His life has modelled for us how to live our lives, demonstrating that God’s law should deeply be embedded in our heart. My dear people of God, Jesus’ demands are more intentional, his vision sharper and his expectations are greater. He does not want the laws and traditions to become an end in themselves. He is more in favour of a law of love, rather than a love of law. The laws and precepts are there to serve the people, to guide and protect them, and it must not be used to control them and to oppress them.
Jesus is calling us to a deeper morality and higher righteousness animated by the new evangelical spirit of charity and sincerity, which does not depend on multiplying regulations but on interpreting the law in terms of love of God and neighbour. He invites us to go beyond legalistic calculation, traditional beliefs (which seriously affected the Scribes and the Pharisees) and a literal interpretation of laws, but embrace the spirit of the law, to place ourselves on the level of true worship of God and adherence to his commandments. Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees reminds us to shun away every form of hypocrisy. The Pharisees followed the law and did what they were supposed to do – they paid their debts, observed their religious rituals and were respected leaders in their communities.
Yet we hear Jesus telling us: “This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; and in vain do they worship me”. The goodness of the Pharisees were superficial; they only kept up appearances and pretended all through. It is seen that they did not commit murder, but their hearts were filled with hatred, jealousy, pride, adultery, wickedness and many other evil intentions. These vices inside their heart defiles their religious functions and positions.
Hence, Jesus is encouraging us to be watchful, abide in truth of God’s commandments and maintain a life of goodness not of wickedness, life of sincerity not hypocrisy, a life of love not hatred, life of obedience not disobedience, a life of truth not falsehood, a life renewed in true service of God and humanity not defiled in vices.