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Scripture:

2 Corinthians 5:14-21
Matthew 5:33-37

Reflection:

What impels you? Saint Paul uses this word today in his letter to the Corinthians; it is a word that means “driving force” or “something that urges us to do something”. If a reporter were to stand on a street corner in today’s world with a camera and a mic and ask passersby, what is it that impels you or what is it that motivates you? The answers we would hear would be something like, success, power, winning, money, getting to the top, health, quality of life etc. I wonder what the reporters reaction would be if someone were to say, “My driving force or motivation for life is to die.” The reporter would probably think the person was out of his mind and the person would be out of his mind, because those that die to self and live for Christ are ‘out of their minds in love with Christ.’ Today’s reading from 2nd Corinthians begins with the 14th verse of Chapter 5, but if we were to go back to the 13th verse we would read. “For if we are out of our minds, it is for God; if we are rational it is for you.” For the love of Christ impels us”. Isn’t that our desire as Christians, to be out of our minds in love with Christ? When we die to self we become a new creation, old things pass away and new things come to life. Everything is shiny and new.

Everything in today’s world has a shelf life, there is nothing of and in itself that will last forever, but through Christ we all become new and we become immortal, through faith we have hope to live forever in heaven with Christ. Consider how we would feel if God would show us our expiration date and let us suppose that the date was in the near future. Would we continue to live the way we are living today or would we change a few things? Would we die a little more to self and live more for Christ? The great Saint and Doctor of the Church Augustine said, “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance to seek him the greatest adventure to find him the greatest human achievement.” When we find him we have no choice but to follow him.

Today’s Gospel reading is appealing to the 8th Commandment, “do not bear false witness against your neighbor, let your yes mean yes and your no mean no. “The truthfulness of this commandment should be what impels us in this life we live, to speak the truth always and to walk humbly with our God because when we find him it is the greatest human achievement that we could ever accomplish. So let us all be impelled by the love of Christ so that we may have the conviction that he indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

Deacon James Anderson is the Administrator at Holy Name Passionist Retreat Center in Houston, Texas.

Scripture:

2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1, 3-6
Matthew 5:20-26

Reflection:

I’ve never murdered anyone.  Does that make me a good Christian?  Not by Jesus’ standards.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents his teaching with the same divine authority as that by which God gave the law to Moses on Mount Sinai.  This undoubtedly would have astounded the scribes and Pharisees, who saw themselves as the arbiters of the Mosaic law.

“…unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven,” Jesus tells his disciples.  The scribes and Pharisees equated righteousness merely with satisfying the outward observance of the law.

But Jesus called his disciples to go beyond that, beyond the letter of the law, into a deeper righteousness.  In this context, righteousness means obedience to God’s laws.  If the disciples of Jesus are to enter into the reign of God, they will have to understand and obey God’s law more deeply than do the scribes and Pharisees.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus provides examples of the righteous behavior necessary to enter the Kingdom.  Does the law command us not to murder?  Jesus says that isn’t good enough.  Sin doesn’t just happen to us.  It first grows as a tiny seed.  Remove the attitudes and actions that lead to killing, and indeed, every obstacle to unconditional love, Jesus says.  Are you angry with your brother or sister?  Leave that sacrifice at the altar.  Go and seek reconciliation first.  At that moment, reconciliation trumps worship.

Jesus goes further.  Are you tangled in a legal feud?  Settle with your opponent quickly before you go to court.  If you do, Jesus says, you will in effect avoid the risk that the divine judge will render judgment against you.

I suppose I could claim to be a good Christian by pointing the fact that I’ve never committed murder.  Indeed, most, if not all of us could make a similar claim.  But then comes that pesky Sermon on the Mount where we learn that externals just don’t get us very far.

What then is the good news here?  Just this: that we ought not to presume to proclaim the good news of the kingdom of heaven, unless the good news first penetrates our hearts and lead us to live according to God’s ultimate intention — obeying the commandments of love and forgiveness.

Deacon Manuel Valencia is on the staff at Mater Dolorosa Passionist Retreat Center, Sierra Madre, California.