Browsing Reflections

Fr. Jo's Reflection for the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr A, February 12, 2023

Whenever I see an icon on my phone asking me to update the software, I usually grow apprehensive, not knowing what changes are coming to the little machine. Sometimes, it’ll mean relearning everything you already know or are used to: because our little devices appear to have a mind of their own, which you’re expected to figure out. Yet, because we seem to have become sucked-in to technology, we patiently get to work and in no distant time, we learn it all and move on with our devices, even loving the new changes, until another call for update. The Christian life often sounds similarly like a constant call to update. When Jesus says that he has come not to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill, it sounds like a call to update our spiritual software. The word of God engages all time and epochs.

We have been following Matthew’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Before we even get lost, let’s recap. After Jesus moved out of the house of Mary and Joseph—having come of age or so it seemed—He went to announce the message for which He came. We call it the announcement or Proclamation of the Kingdom with the starting call to repentance. His Mission Statement states: “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” Next, He sees a crowd anxious to receive this message, and goes up the mountain. From there He starts to lay out His vision for the New Way. He issues eight blessings or Beatitudes that are connected with kingdom membership. As they got excited, He indicates that choosing the new way evinces nobility; hence, people of the New Way will be like salt which would season the earth and preserve it from corruption, and, like light that shines on all, revealing things hidden and paths clogged with dangerous obstacles to the kingdom. Furthermore, He warns them that should their salt become insipid or their light grow dim, they’ll not only lose the taste of the kingdom and miss their way, they’ll even lead other people astray. It’s from there that we arrive at the instructions of today, which illustrate how the New Way far outpaces the old order in clarity and perfection. For the next three Sundays, we’ll continue to follow Matthew’s famous mountain discourse of Jesus, recorded in chapters 5 through 7 of his Gospel.

 Today’s discourse peers into our internal thoughts and even desires revealing how they can bear moral consequences, either for good or for bad. Jesus first states that there is something called “murder by intention.” We may never be able to physically kill someone, either because the opportunity does not present itself or because we lack the courage—or cowardice—it takes to murder someone. Yet, a definite intention to do so is enough to infer moral culpability. What should we guard against? Anger and hatred.

Similarly, we commit adultery not just when we’re caught with another person’s spouse. If that were all it takes, then those who engage in premarital sex, homosexual acts—in all ranges of the alphabet and +—as well as pedophiles and prostitutes would be exempt. Lustful eyes and heart, too, are as egregious as physical acts of adultery. In this online age, the act of adultery can be completed online through pornography and masturbation, indecent exposures through snapchat—aka sexting, hours upon hours in immoral chatrooms, indecent dressing meant to allure, etc. We must repeat this truth over and over to ourselves: pornography is adultery. Contrary to the view that the Church has become lenient with divorce, Jesus reiterates today that divorce is equally adultery. What should we guard against? Lust.

Finally, Jesus is spot on about the different forms of falsehood prevalent in our time. Whether they’re boldface lies, malicious twisting of other people’s words, innuendos, contradiction of facts—aka alternative facts, fake news, and the like are all from the evil one. Children of the kingdom should flee from lies.

Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo

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