First reading: Sirach 15:15-20
Second reading: 1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Gospel: Matthew 5:17-37

Our Gospel for this weekend is taken from the beginning section of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus has already symbolically established himself as the New Moses going up on a mountain giving a New Law. Furthermore, his, ‘you have heard it said, but I say,’ has revealed that he has authority even over the Torah. That’s what he is talking about. “You have heard it said in the Torah the great Law given by God to Moses, you have heard it said there but I say to you… his extraordinary claim of authority. What’s clear therefore is that the Law is not being abrogated rather it’s being intensified. The person speaking here is not anti-Moses but he is the New Moses. He is not undermining the Law but rather he is raising it to a new pitch of intensity.

The Law was always meant to bring humanity into line with divinity. In the beginning this was an easy matter. Adam and Even before the fall walking in easy fellowship with God but after the fall, the Laws had to be given to bring humanity and divinity into alignment and this was done at the very basic level. But now that the definitive Moses has appeared this alignment is becoming absolute, radical, complete.

And so Jesus the New Moses says, “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgement. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his bother or sister will be liable to judgement. Well, killing is an action obviously but that action is rooted in a more fundamental dysfunction. Its rooted in a hateful attitude; a disordered soul. So in order to become what God wants us to be we have to eliminate obviously cruel and hateful thoughts, actions, and even cruel attitudes. See for God is love right through. Jesus is not eliminating the Law here but he is intensifying it.

In a very similar ways, Jesus says, ‘You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Again the act is certainly bad. The act is grounded though in a dysfunctional attitude. A basic misperception. A compromise in the soul. So in order to be aligned to a God who is nothing but love those underlying problems have to be addressed. The point is conformity to God must reach to the point of the self. So the Lord says be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. In other words in alignment with God that reaches all the way down reaches beyond the level of action gets down into the mind, into the heart, into the roots of the soul not just conformity externally but rather an alignment internally. That’s how Jesus the New Moses wants us to be aligned to God.

The Church yes makes an extraordinary ethical demand. It wants us to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect and at the same time the Church also makes a radical offer of forgiveness. And to get both sides of this right is to get closer to the heart of the Gospel, which is love.