HOMILY FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR A
Ecclesiasticus 15:15-20/ Psalm 119/1Corinthians 2:6-10/ Matthew 5:17-37
AGORSOR Aaron Agbeshie
THEME: In our innocence lies our strength
Viktor Frankl once said” Everything can be taken away from a man but one thing: the last of human freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances…” The Commandments of God are not oppressive. It is based on love. Yet God gives man the privilege to choose to love Him or not. The readings will remind us that it is when we fail to obey the Commandment of love that we see the law as oppressive.
In the Gospel Reading Jesus reminds us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees before we can inherit the kingdom of heaven. The kind of righteousness that Jesus demands of us is what he teaches in the Beatitudes.
Jesus reiterates this fact when he says “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Indeed, Jesus did not fulfill the law by fighting it. He destroyed it by fulfilling it. How can we too fulfill the law? By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing him to work in our lives (Romans 8:1-3). The Holy Spirit enables us to experience the “righteousness of the law” in daily life. This does not mean that we live sinlessly perfect lives, but it means that Christ lives out his life through us by the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 2:20). St. Paul puts it beautifully when he says “ … the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20b).
Again, when we read the Beatitudes, we see the perfect character of Jesus Christ. While Jesus never had to mourn over His sins, since He was sinless, he was still “a man of sorrow acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). He never had to hunger and thirst for righteousness since he was the only son of God, but he did delight in the Father’s will and find his satisfaction in doing it ( John 4:34). The only way we can experience the righteousness of the Beatitudes is through the power of Christ.
Furthermore, Jesus teaches us how righteousness works in daily life. Jesus took six important Old Testament laws and interpreted them for his people in the light of the New Testament namely murder, adultery, divorce, swearing, retaliation and love of enemies. But I will talk on only murder.
He first talked about murder. He says “… you shall not murder and whoever murders shall liable to judgment. But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you shall be liable to judgment…” (Matthew 5:21-22). There is, if you like, a holy anger against sin (Ephesians 4:26). But Jesus talked about an unholy anger against people. The word he uses in Matthew 5:22 means a settled anger or malice that is nursed inwardly and then it explodes into words and words leads to action. Jesus did not say that anger leads to murder; he said that anger is murder. Anger is such a foolish thing. It makes us destroyers instead of builders. It robs us of freedom and makes us prisoners. To hate someone is to commit murder in our hearts (1 John 3:15).
This does not mean that we should go ahead and murder someone we hate, since we have already sinned inwardly. Obviously, sinful feelings are not excuses for sinful deeds. Sinful anger robs us of fellowship with God as well as with our brothers, but it does not put us into jail as murderers. However, more people have become murderers because they failed to control their sinful anger. Sinful anger must be faced honestly and must be confessed to God as sin. We must settle our differences with our brothers and sisters quickly. The longer we wait, the worse the bondage becomes. It is said that the person who refuses to forgive his brother destroys the very bridge over which he himself must walk.
The first reading affirms Jesus’ stance on why our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and the Pharisees before we can enter the kingdom of heaven. It is replete with the issue of choice. One of the greatest gifts that God gave to humanity was the gift of free will. By his free will, man is left to his counsel. “If you choose, you can keep the commandments and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice” (Ecclesiasticus 15:15). Faithfulness to God’s commandment is an attitude of the heart not an external show. The Pharisees attitude towards the law gave the impression as if God gives us permission to sin. When Jesus says that “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20), he made a fundamental change without altering God’s Law. Rather, he dealt with the attitudes and intent of the heart and not with external actions. The Pharisees said that righteousness consisted of performing certain external actions, but Jesus emphasises that it centred on the attitude of the heart.

Yet, “For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything; his eyes are on those who fear him and he knows every human action” (Ecclesiasticus 15:18-19). This means that no human wisdom can outwit the wisdom of God because before we act, he knows.
I could not agree more with St. Paul in the second reading when underscores the fact that for those who love God everyday is a good day. It may not look like a good day, but when God is working His plan, we can be sure of the best. It is when we fail to trust Him or obey His commandments; when our love for Him grows cold, that life takes a somber hue. If we walk in God’s wisdom, we will enjoy His blessings. For he says “ What no eyes have seen no ear heard, nor the human heart conceived , what God has prepared for those who love Him- these things God has revealed to us through his Spirit…” (1Corinthians 2:9-10a).
In a nutshell, our strength lies in our innocence. Let us rediscover the purpose for which God created us namely to love Him, to serve Him, to worship and honour Him. The person who says that he lives by the Beatitudes may not realize that it is more difficult to keep than the original Ten Commandments. May everything we do be guided by love; love of God and love of neighbor.