SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY THIRD WEEK OF LENT 6TH MARCH 2024

SERMON/HOMILY FOR WEDNESDAY THIRD WEEK OF LENT 6TH MARCH 2024

Deut.4:1, 5-9; Ps.147; Matthew 5:17-19

The Law has not been abrogated

Jesus has often times referred to himself and his ministry as “New”. He says that he has come to give us a new commandment; he is also the new covenant. Whenever something new arrivals, the spontaneous action of people is to abandon the old for the new. In today’s gospel, Jesus tells us that if we apply this principle to the scriptures, we will be making a big mistake.

The New Commandment that Jesus gives does not ridicule but perfects the old. In fact, the newness of the commandments is in the application of the old. Jesus has come to teach us how best we can obey the commandments. For example, in the Old Testament, it was said that one should not commit adultery, but Jesus went further and said that one should not look at a woman lustfully. The Old Testament forbade only an action but Jesus forbids the desire itself; for it is the desire that leads to the action.

The Old Testament forbade killing but Jesus further forbids anger. In a bid to ensure justice, the Old Testament laid down the law of “an eye for an eye”, and “a tooth for a tooth”, Jesus who is justice himself, rather teaches us to forgive and repay evil with good.

We see that Jesus has not permitted lawlessness but has further discouraged it. This means that the words of Moses to the people in the first reading of today remains true: “Behold, I have taught you statutes and ordinances, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should keep them and do them; for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples…”

What Jesus condemned in the Pharisees and the Scribes was a hypocritical attitude to the commandments. We are either living by the commandments or not; there is no middle way. The first reading says that such obedience shall be our wisdom and understanding; the gospel reading says it shall account for our greatness in the kingdom of heaven. Hypocrisy cannot bear such fruits in us because it does not unite us with God. If we want to be truly great, we must be law abiding.