THE WORD
1 Kgs 18,41-46 / Mt 5,20-26
Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven. “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go fi rst and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”
IN OTHER WORDS
“Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of heaven.” It is clear from this Gospel passage that the “righteousness” of the Scribes and Pharisees was not enough for them to enter the Kingdom of heaven. It was a righteousness that consisted merely of an external observance of the law or the practice of its minimum requirements. Thus, righteousness from this perspective means that one is observing the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” as long as he/she does not commit murder. Not necessarily, though. It is not enough not to kill as taught by the law. Being angry or even calling somebody “buang” or ‘fool’ is already a sin, says the Gospel.
Let us look for a more reliable standard to help guide us in our quest for God’s kingdom. Let it be the standard of Christ, so that we will never go wrong. For God did not judge or condemn us but offered his life on the cross for the forgiveness of ours sins. In the same way, he wants us to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters by making peace with them, rather than by wishing them ill.
Truly, if there is somebody who has surpassed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, that somebody is none other than Christ himself. Without fear of being wrong, we can look up to Him as our salvific standard of righteousness, to measure and to imitate as God our Father in heaven would like us to do. As our standard, we can liken Christ and ourselves to a satellite and to an atomic clock, respectively.
As the atomic clock re-calibrates itself and adjusts itself to the exact time of the day or night by satellite, so we, too, need to re-calibrate ourselves every now and then to be in sync with Christ, who is our Universal Standard in which all of life is measured.
- Fr. Vicente Uy, SVD | HNU, Tagbilaran ,Bohol
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.