Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
A big focus on many people’s minds at this time is the Winter Olympic
Games going on in Sochi, Russia right now. I like the pageantry, I
like the fact that countries can compete with each other with games,
and I like the sportsmanship that the athletes show each other. Even
athletes who were just fighting hard to beat each other to the finish
line can be seen congratulating each other later on. 


It is hard for me to choose my favorite sport in the Winter Olympics.
In fact, I’ve given up trying to pick one: I enjoy too many of
them. But I have to admit, I especially enjoy watching the sports
where the individual athletes get several chances to improve their
score or their time on an event before it’s all over. In some
sports they only get one chance to get the gold, and if they make one
mistake or they trip or they happen to blink at the wrong time they
are done and there is no way they can get a second chance, even if it
is through no fault of their own. Something about that seems unfair
to me. Other sports, however, allow you a chance to improve. In the
bobsled and luge, for example, the athletes get four chances down the
track to try to improve their time. All the times are added
together, so a slow time can be canceled out by being quicker later
on. If you have ever watched the snowboarding or the free-style
skiing, where they go on jumps and do flips and spins in the air,
you’ll see that they get a couple of runs to qualify and then two
more final runs. These athletes never do all their fanciest moves on
the opening run. They start out simple and then they do harder and
harder trick with each run. The idea is that they want to improve
with each run so that they can end with the top score. They’ve
already done a great job with their early runs. Now they’re just
improving on a good thing.


The readings for today focus on taking what is good and improving on it.
From the days in which the Israelites were encamped around Mt. Sinai,
and Moses received the tablets with the Ten Commandments, God has
expected those who follow Him to follow His laws. Now, of course,
God is perfect and His law is perfect: He doesn't need to improve
anything. The improvement in this case is from us. Jesus is asking
us to take the commandments we have learned and take it a step
further as we work towards holiness.


We started the Liturgy of the Word with the reading from Sirach. This
book was written by a wise man who lived in Jerusalem a little over a
century before Christ. He starts out this passage with some strong
encouragement for us: “If you choose you can keep the commandments,
they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live.” Yes,
there are many different temptations out there to go against God's
commandments, but no matter how much we may want to argue that “the
Devil made me do it” it is still our choice to either obey or
disobey. We can either choose eternal life or everlasting death.
Sirach is not saying that any of this is easy; there are many
challenges that a person has to face in following God. We know that
God is just, however, and He will never ask us to do what is wrong.
“No one does He command to act unjustly, to none does He give
license to sin.” We cannot go wrong with God.


The psalm for today gives us an even higher incentive for following the
commandments. As we sang just a little bit ago, “Blessed
are they who follow the law of the Lord!” The psalm writer clearly
saw how blessings are given to those who follow the law. The
psalmist also understands that we cannot do anything without the help
of God. “Open my eyes, that I may consider the wonders of your law.” This and
other lines ask for God's help to keep us on the right path. Without
those blessings, we cannot hope to follow those commandments. 


In short, we need the wisdom of God to help us, as St. Paul talks about
in his first letter to the Corinthians. Not everybody has this
wisdom, the Apostle says, particularly those who crucified Christ.
God reveals His Wisdom through the Spirit to those who love Him,
however. May we be blessed with that Wisdom.


Our Gospel today is a particularly long one and as I mentioned before,
includes an invitation from Christ to take things a step further.
The passage today comes from an early section of the Sermon on the
Mount, in which Jesus gives many different teachings. He knows that
there will be people who think He is trying to change the laws that
are in the Jewish religion, so He starts out this section by saying,
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” Many people even today
assume that Christ really made huge changes for the Jewish religion.
Yes, He did change things, but not by getting rid of anything. He
simply asked those who believed to take the next step; to improve on
what they were already doing.


Many of the Jews in Jesus' time, especially the Pharisees, were so focused
on following every letter of the law, that they had forgotten that
the point of the entire law was to help us to love God and neighbor
better. Jesus is trying to help us win heavenly gold, if you will,
by teaching us how to love better.


He calls to mind several commandments. He's basically saying, “Look!
You know you're not supposed to kill. You have that part down. What
I'm telling you now is, don't even get angry people. Don't even call
people names; reconcile differences with your brothers and sisters.
You know you shouldn't commit adultery. Don't even look at another
person with lust.” He goes on to talk about how marriage is meant
for life and that we shouldn't swear or make any oaths, but actually
mean what we say. With all of these Jesus hasn't changed a single
law or commandment. People had been following those commandments for
centuries before Christ was even born. Now He's asking us to set the
bar. Don't obey the law, but love your God and your neighbor. Then
we will be truly blessed.