{"id":1294,"date":"2014-02-16T20:27:38","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T01:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1294"},"modified":"2014-02-16T20:27:38","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T01:27:38","slug":"6th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/6th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a\/","title":{"rendered":"6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A"},"content":{"rendered":"

6th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nSirach 15:15-20
\n1 Corinthians 2:6-10
\nMatthew 5:17-37
\nFebruary 16, 2014<\/p>\n

Jesus told his disciples that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.<\/p>\n

It might have been nice if he had abolished the Law.\u00a0 The history of the Law and the people is clear, it often wasn\u2019t followed.\u00a0 There are a few reasons it wasn\u2019t often followed.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it was a person\u2019s choice.\u00a0 Some knew what the Law said but did what they wanted, ignoring the law.\u00a0 Some didn\u2019t understand the Law and broke it.\u00a0 Some tried to follow the law but found it too hard.<\/p>\n

For any of these, it would have been simplest to abolish the Law.\u00a0 That isn\u2019t the case.\u00a0 The Law comes from God and is good.<\/p>\n

Jesus doesn\u2019t come to change the Law.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t need to.\u00a0 Jesus tells us that he comes to fulfill the Law.\u00a0 He comes to help us understand what the Law is all about.<\/p>\n

God does not give us the Law to suit his needs.\u00a0 God is an infinite God and does not need us to tend to his needs. God gives the Law not for his good but for ours.\u00a0 Why would God do this?\u00a0 Because he loves us.<\/p>\n

In Sirach we hear, if you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you<\/i>.\u00a0 When we break the commandments bad things happen.\u00a0 When we follow the commandments good things happen.\u00a0 The good or the bad are not simply God\u2019s retribution or reward, they often follow directly from what we do.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why God gives us the commandments.\u00a0 Knowing God does this for our good, we place our trust in him.\u00a0 In reading the Old Testament, we can see how when the people followed the commandments, they prospered.\u00a0 When they turned away from the commandments, things turned bad quickly.<\/p>\n

That alone should be enough to show us that we can trust in God.\u00a0 However, as Christians we have a further sign that we can trust in God.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 Crucifixion reveals to us that God\u2019s love has no limits.\u00a0 God is totally committed to doing what is good for us.<\/p>\n

All this being said we are free to choose to follow the commandments or to follow another way.\u00a0 I pray that we all choose to follow God\u2019s commandments.<\/p>\n

So far I have only talked in terms of either following God\u2019s commandments or not.\u00a0 If only it were so black and white!<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve already mentioned that sometimes when people break the commandments it is because we don\u2019t understand.\u00a0 Sometimes we just want it very clear what the rules are and we also want to do the minimum amount necessary.<\/p>\n

Jesus was not a minimalist.\u00a0 In fact, he expands the commandments.\u00a0 Thou shall not kill!\u00a0 Jesus says don\u2019t even get angry.\u00a0 Thou shall not commit adultery!\u00a0 Jesus says don\u2019t even look at another person in that way.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Thou shall not bear a false oath!\u00a0 Jesus says you should not have to make an oath because you should always mean what you say so people will trust you without asking for an oath.<\/p>\n

Jesus reveals to us what the Law is truly about, loving God and loving our neighbor <\/i>so we can take what we have learned in the commandments and apply it to life today.<\/p>\n

Some people say that if it isn\u2019t specifically in the Bible we are free to do whatever we want.\u00a0 We are always free to do whatever we want but that doesn\u2019t mean we should.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it is reasonable to expect everything to be covered word for word in the Bible.\u00a0 It was written 2,000 years ago.\u00a0 God would have known what the world would be like today but if Jesus tried the people 2,000 years ago about things like the medical technology we have today, they would have thought him nuts.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Jesus sought to teach the disciples what the Law is about.\u00a0 It\u2019s also why Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit, to help us interpret the Law as it applies in our world today.<\/p>\n

Some say that the Catholic Church has added<\/i><\/b> to the teachings of Jesus.\u00a0 The Catholic Church, our church<\/i>, does not seek to add anything to Jesus\u2019 teaching.\u00a0 What our Church has done throughout the ages is to try and help us apply Jesus\u2019 teachings to everyday life.<\/p>\n

We should never see the Law as a burden.\u00a0 It is a gift God has given us that we might live a good life in peace and harmony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Sirach 15:15-20 1 Corinthians 2:6-10 Matthew 5:17-37 February 16, 2014 Jesus told his disciples that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. It might have been nice if he had abolished the Law.\u00a0 The history of the Law and the people is clear, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-kS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1294"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1295,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1294\/revisions\/1295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}