The Smallest Letter

Greetings on this the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Readings: Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37

Summary

Today is Band Aid or Bandage Sunday. Why do I call it that?

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I ask you, which do you prefer? When you take off a bandage or band aid, do you rip it off or do you gently soak it off?

There are times for one way versus the other but this morning I wish to soak it off gently. In our gospel portion today, Jesus’ corrections for us are on “full force“. Jesus today is not attacking us. He is removing infection. And he goes deeper than behavior. He touches the mind, the body, the heart, and even the will.

Brillo-pads

My arms (show them) are like Brillo-pads. Nurses when applying bandages or setting a line, usually gasp at the thought of placing and removing a bandage on a matt of hair.

Dream, goal, plan

We dream to enter into the kingdom of heaven as a key hope of the faith. When can we enter the Kingdom? Our goal is the Here and Now. The plan is to avoid the four pitfalls Jesus names. The Kingdom isn’t far off and in the distant future but in the here and now. Yet, so is Gehenna pitfall and so many live there in the here and now. Gehenna is not future punishment; it is our present disintegration.

Choosing the Quality of Life

This is the choice described by Sirach:

Whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him (Sir 15:16b-17).

Making A Life For Yourself

In our gospel portion today, Jesus gives us the distinct differences between making a prison for ourselves and being liberated in God’s love. Prison or freedom in God.

Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny (Mt 5:24b, 25-26).

If we combine the four warnings of Jesus, we can see the way of a personal prison, a personal Gehenna:

• Anger – a fiery Gehenna existence, a consuming fire with no warmth.
• Lust – is a fragmentation of our affection, shattering the crystal vase of endearment.
• Adultery – is a forgetting the treasure that is love, losing it in the fields of indifference.
• False Oaths – is a fractured trust in yourself or in others, pledging against the very vice we possess.

If we combine the four remedies of Jesus, we can see the way of of faithful liberation:

• Anger – is cooled by reconciliation with your brother, forgiving him, and seeking his forgiveness.
• Lust – evaporates in the appreciation of beauty that we don’t need to take possession of it.
• Adultery – loses its appeal by the restoring love to be given, receive anew love given.
• False Oaths – The interior resolve is beyond any oaths, restores proximity to fidelity. No more words. Do.

Reflection

Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. This God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God. Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom (1 Cor 2:6, 10; Mt 11:25).

The way of Life is not of this fiery world or of the wisdom of the Age: Anger, lust, infidelity and swearing are things that make for a firey and horrible world. The currency of the modern world is anger, deception and appropriation. It was only two weeks ago that we encountered The Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, as the way of the Blessed.

Who goes to court with a complaint about another and yet you yourself are thrown into prison?

Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him… [otherwise] you will be thrown into prison (Mt 5:25).

Personal Reflection

The habits of anger, lust, infidelity and lying are the pattern we must overcome.

The habits of anger, lust, infidelity, and dishonesty do not heal themselves.
They loosen their grip when we stop pretending we can save ourselves.

This is why the Lord gives us himself.
Not as a prize for the perfect, but as nourishment for the divided heart.

In the Eucharist, Christ does not shame our weakness—
he enters it, steadies it, and teaches us how to live free.

Sacred Readings full text: https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021526.cfm

Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry