Faith

The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart- Thursday- 10th Week in ordinary time-Matthew 5: 20-26

Jesus has clearly taught the disciples that identity comes before behaviour. The identity of a disciple is to be the salt and light of the world. Having done that, Jesus now gives His disciples an understanding on behaviour. These are found in the six hyper-theses in the Sermon on the Mount and today’s gospel is the first of them.

What is the point that Jesus wants to make? He wants His disciples to go beyond the law of the Old Testament by deepening and radicalizing it to the original will of God. However, He never moves them in a lax direction; rather Jesus moves us to more, and hence they are called hyper-theses (JBC).

Perhaps it was the mind of Jesus to rectify the inadequate interpretation of the law as interpreted by the Scribes and Pharisees. So His first example is taken from the sixth commandment, “thou shalt not murder” (Exodus 20:13).

Remember that Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to deepen it and so while He does not diminish the law on homicide He went beyond it. He takes up the more subtle manifestation of the behaviour that leads to homicide; behaviour that we perhaps live out each day. It is in anger, insult and name calling that Jesus sees the potential seeds of murder.

For Jesus, the essence of murder is when we begin to regard another’s life as useless. The Scribes and Pharisees believed that they were guiltless of such a crime as long as they did not shed the blood of another human. In doing this they missed the spirit of the law. Jesus sends His listeners in a tizzy when He takes the same penalty for murder and applies it to anger and careless words.

Perhaps the English translation of the Bible does not do the original Greek and Aramaic justice. So in English the words ‘angry’, ‘insult’ or ‘fool’ don’t seem to sound as serious as the original Greek or Aramaic, which also conveys the contempt or motivation behind the words.

The meaning of ‘insult’ or ‘raca’ in Aramaic was an indifference that was expressed in calling one’s brother, ‘empty headed’. The root of this word raka was ‘reqa’; meaning, to spit. In other words what one brother was calling the other brother was, ‘you little piece of spit.’ Or for that matter, the word fool in Greek is ‘moros’. This word from where we get the English ‘moron’ was not so much calling someone a name as much as it was a derogatory statement.

What is Jesus’ radical solution? Simply this – go beyond the law. Murderous thoughts begin in little ways, like anger and contempt and name calling. We don’t see this as gravely sinful, but it is and even more; it has the potential to take us down the road we never intended to walk. Nothing just happens! Everything begins from somewhere and Jesus wants us to keep in check the small things as much as we would avoid the big things.

The solution of Jesus is “leave your gift at the altar and go and be reconciled to your brother or sister.” For the Jew, there was nothing more important than sacrifice and worship. For Jesus, what is more important is the condition of the heart. There is a clear priority of ethics over cult for true worship of God that demands justice. For Jesus, the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.

Fr Warner D’Souza
References from the Jerome’s Biblical Commentary

 

Spread the love ♥
24      
24
Shares
Continue Reading
Faith

The Law: Delivered by Moses, Fulfilled by Jesus – Wednesday- 10th Week in ordinary time-Matthew 5: 17-19

In order to constantly understand Jesus as presented in Matthew’s gospel we need to keep in mind a Judeo-Christian community that has found itself locked out of the synagogue by the Jewish authority. So while Matthew portrays Jesus as respectful of the Torah, he will not show the same courtesy to the keepers of it who are seen by Jesus as hypocrites.

The Pharisaic halakha with which Jesus was in conflict, was a collective body of Jewish religious laws derived from the written and oral Torah. It included 613 mitzvot or commandments. The mitzvot were both ethical and ceremonial.

Verse 17 begins with what could only be seen as a presupposition. Their religious leaders had already begun to poison the minds of the people against Jesus, presenting Him as a radical leader. For them, He was not really a rabbi for He disregarded the law and the prophets. Jesus takes on this slanderous accusation head on. He is clear, He is not here to abolish the law but to fulfill it and fulfill every letter of it.

For four hundred years up to Jesus, the voices of prophecy had been silent. In this void, a group of people known as the Pharisees and scribes become interpreters of the law and in a sense de facto intermediary between God and man. To the people, these leaders were examples par excellence, men to be followed for their religious piety.
Imagine the challenge that Jesus threw His hearers when He said that the righteousness of an ‘ordinary Jew’ must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, in order to get into the kingdom of heaven.

Spread the love ♥
8      
8
Shares
Continue Reading
Faith

For heaven sake, don’t tell me you are sweet!

Fifth Sunday in ordinary time-Matthew 5:13-16

The intended hearers of Matthew’s first discourse are principally the disciples. So this passage is for you and me; plain and simple. The question being raised by Jesus is this; if we lose our Christian distinctiveness, how can we become Christian again? Jesus does this by giving us two assertions (verses 13 a, 14 a), two examples (13b and 14 b) and one commandment (verse 16). So this is not some suggestion that the Lord is making but a clear commandment (unlike the beatitudes).

Jesus’ instructions in these verses are statements of facts. He does not say you should be the light of the world, he says,” you are”! In doing so He gives us identity before behaviour. Our identity is that we are salt and light in the world. Knowing who we are, we have clarity of how we should behave.

The metaphors of Jesus have unfortunately to be explained to the modern world. What was once a common sense example is today obscured. Jesus did not need to give a commentary on the importance of salt or light, the metaphor was clear. Both these metaphors were both highly valued and important to daily living in the ancient world.

To cite an example, the very word ‘salary’ comes from the word salt. Salt was a highly valued commodity and Roman soldiers were paid their salary in salt. Salt was used for seasoning and used as a preservative in a world that had never imagined a refrigerator.

Spread the love ♥
23 1    
24
Shares
Continue Reading
Uncategorized

A description not a prescription – 4th Sunday in ordinary time – Matthew 5: 1-12

Matthew’s gospel is often referred to as the teaching gospel for it contains five great discourses into which Matthew has gathered so much of his teaching material.

Writing to a Judeo- Christian audience sometime between 75- 90 AD the gospel has strong overtones of a ‘family feud’. In 80 AD, the Rabbis of Jamnia had placed the Christians outside the community of Judaism. The ‘birkat hamminim,’ a curse pronounced on heretics and which included the Christians, set the Christians community firmly outside the boundaries of Judaism, something that the community of St Matthew will contest.

Matthew’s gospel has two clear focuses; that Jesus is the Christ and that the kingdom of God that he proclaims will break upon the world soon.  The gospel of today is the opening verses of the first of the five discourses and is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Enunciated in this sermon, are the key attitudes that the disciple must live by. The intended hearers of the sermon are the disciples but the crowds present are not barred from the message of Jesus.  In Chapter 7:28 it is the crowds who, having heard the sermon, react to the words of Jesus.

Spread the love ♥
14      
14
Shares
Continue Reading
Art/ Heritage

IMAGINING THE UNIMAGINABLE: The Trinity as the Throne of Mercy in ecclesiastical art

‘Bring me a worm that can comprehend a man and then I will show you a man that can comprehend God’ – John Wesley

At the core of the Catholic faith is the belief in one God and three persons. The mystery of the Trinity has sparked fascination and debate over ages. Artists too have attempted to express this mystic marvel in novel ways since centuries. One such depiction is that of the ‘Throne of Mercy’ which was popular in the West during the Middle Ages. The iconography of the theme includes the crucified Christ at the center held by the majestic seated profile of God the Father. A radiant dove hovers above, symbolizing the Holy Spirit.

An embroidered representation of this theme is found on the French styled chasuble displayed currently at the Archdiocesan Heritage Museum. Executed gracefully in petit point, this chasuble is a testimony to the exceptional meticulous skill of embroidery practiced by artisans and patronized by the Church. Gothic arches bedecked with floral spandrels and inlaid with pineapples augment its elegance. A testimony to European art, the pineapple signifies regeneration and eternal life.

The front side of the chasuble is guitar shaped while the reverse is rectangular in form. The obverse orphery band is segmented into three parts distinguished by the words ‘Sanctus Sanctus Sanctus’ which can be translated as ‘Holy Holy Holy’. Within the central reserve, an angel, footed onto billows of clouds, holds a plaque with the insignia IHS, signifying the name of Christ. 

Spread the love ♥
11      
11
Shares
Continue Reading