Mt 5:17-37

“I have come not to abolish [the law] but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17).

There is an old, traditional greeting among Irish people, still exchanged by some on St. Patrick’s Day.  They greet one another saying, “May you live all the days of your life.”  David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk and writer, in tune with that Irish greeting famously says, “The fact that you are not yet dead is not sufficient proof that you are alive.”  Are we truly alive?  Am I truly living my life?  Am I living the life that I am called to live?  Am I the person I was called to be?  These are the questions that today’s Liturgy of the Word, the readings we just read, invite us to ask.

The sage Sirach in our first reading teaches that to live our life truly or not depends on our own choice.  He says, “The Lord has placed … before each person fire and water … life and death, [good and evil] whichever one chooses will be given” (Sir 15:17).  The choices we make every day between good and evil have a life or death quality.  One may say that is an exaggeration.  We know that our moral choices have their consequences; but they do not determine about life or death.  In which sense does choosing evil ways bring death into our life?

To answer this question, we need to go back to the story of creation – to the story of the very first sin of Adam and Eve.  As we remember, God addressed our first parents with the words, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die” (Gen 2:16-17).  God was very specific, “you shall die”.  He did not say “you may die” but “you shall die”.  The serpent, that is, the devil said, don’t worry, “you will not die” (Gen 3:4).  As we know Adam and Eve went ahead and ate.  And what happened?  Did they die?  No, they went and hid themselves.  Who was right, God, who is called the supreme truth,^[1] or the devil, who is called the father of lies (Jn 8:44)?

Scott Hann, a scriptural scholar, points out that when God created men and women, the very first breath He breathed into them was not an ordinary breath.  We read in the Book of Genesis, “Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being” (Gen 2:7).  The very breath of God, given to us, is the life-giving Spirit.  We do not have just a natural human life; we are endowed with the Divine Life — which means there are two ways to live and there are two ways to die.  By saying, “in the day you eat, you shall die”, God was not talking about natural life – He was referring to the Divine Life.  On the day Adam and Eve took the fruit from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil”, the very Life of God died within them.  This is symbolized by the fact that they are ‘naked’ and ‘hide’ themselves.  And this is what each sin does in our life; it takes away from us the very Life of God.  Even though it is not a physical death, it is no less a way of dying.^[2]

A few years ago, I read a heart-breaking interview with a woman whose financial difficulties made her become a courtesan.  While talking about her past life, she said, “What was the worst in my life at that time was that parts of my humanity were dying each day.  I could observe like day by day were dying parts of my soul and parts of my body.”^[3]

Sometimes we joke about our sins and about neglecting God’s commandments.  Oscar Wilde famously said, ‘the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it’.  But when we look deeply enough into our life, we see that in reality each time we take the ‘fruit’ from “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” – that is, each time we break God’s commandments, we deprive ourselves of true Life.  We take away from ourselves the most precious gift we carry within our hearts and souls, the very Divine Life of God.  This is why, as we have in the Gospel, Jesus recalling the commandments and showing us the true meaning of them.  What is noteworthy is that Jesus does not only encourage us to observe the commandments, He invites us to go deeper than the letter of God’s law.  He says, it is not enough to avoid murder, adultery, or lying.  Our own choice between the way of life or death begins in the heart; it begins in the way we look at others and in the way we think about them.^[4]

Why are there good and bad people in the world?  Why do some people literally radiate goodness, kindness, honesty, while others do the opposite?  Were people born as good or evil?  Of course not.  We are born as a man or a woman, tall or short.  But to be a just person, truthful, kind is a matter of the choices we make.  We somehow choose whom we want to be.  By our choices we shape our souls and hearts.^[5]

Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk and writer, speaking about holiness, says that for each of us to be a saint is nothing else but to be himself or herself.  But he emphasizes that we become ourselves or not based on our choices.  He writes, “Trees and animals have no problem.  God makes them what they are without consulting them, and they are perfectly satisfied.  With us, it is different.  God leaves us free to be whatever we like.  We can be ourselves or not, as we please.”^[6]

Talking about how our choices impact our lives reminds me of a famous story about Abraham Lincoln.  When Lincoln was President, he was advised to include a certain man in his cabinet.  He refused, saying ‘I don’t like his face’.  One of his advisers was surprised; ‘Why do you reject him, this poor man is not responsible for his face.’  To that remark Lincoln answered, ‘Every man over forty is responsible for his face’.^[7]  Our own choices shape the world around us; they also mark our hearts and faces.

And so … as the sage Sirach teaches, it is up to us to choose between life and death, good and evil.  As Jesus reminds us, the choice of walking the way of life begins in our hearts.  By giving us the commandments and inviting us to keep them, all God wants for us is to have a meaningful life and to become good and loving people – that is, to become who we truly are.

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^[1] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae (Prima Pars, Q16).

^[2] Scott Hahn, The Healing Power of Confession, Lighthouse Catholic Media, 2010.  (CD)

^[3] Gazeta Wyborcza, 13/14 2006, Dodatek, Wysokie Obcasy.

^[4] Scott Lewis SJ, “We can’t blame God for our choices.”  The Catholic Register, February 9, 2020, p.13.

^[5] J. Tischner, Wedrowki w kraine filozofow, Krakow 2008, s. 95-97.

^[6] Merton, Thomas. New Seeds of Contemplation.  Norfolk, CT.  Abbey of Gethsemani, Inc. 1961.  Print., 31.

^[7] Abraham Lincoln as quoted in Resource, July/August, 1990. http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/l/lincoln.htm (accessed February 16, 2020).