Reflection On Mathew 5: 20-26

One evening a TV executive was eating dinner with his family. During the course of the meal, their topic of conversation centered on a certain disagreement had arisen between him and a fellow worker. His small son listened for a while and then interjected, “Why don’t you kill him, daddy?” the family members told him that was a terrible thing to say. The little boy replied, “That’s what they do on television.” Had this youngster been schooled as much in today’s Gospel as he had been in television, he would have suggested, “Why don’t you forgive him, daddy?”We are not as blunt as this little boy in our speech but our thoughts sometimes may be similar. Some people are doing a lot of thinking about real killing. The daily paper keeps us aware of that. Why aren’t we more forgiving? In this sacred passage, Jesus begs us to forgive our brothers and sisters. More than beg, He threatens us with dire consequences if we fail to be forgiving, maybe we can’t always forgive in word or action but all of us can forgive in our hearts. It’s real important that we do it.
In the Gospel, the scribes were considered well educated and the Pharisees, well versed in the law. But for Jesus they were not the considerations. Jesus doesn’t look at one if he or she is expert in something or in certain areas of life. What is utmost importance for Him is the inner attitude, how one does a thing. All of us may know the letter of the law, may not be the spirit of the law. What Jesus expects from one is the knowledge of the nature and spirit of the law. For instance, we may not murder anyone, but our silence, our rude comments might have killed many a person many a time. Pray that we may not fall into the trap of empty legalism and into the din of empty observance. Our righteousness should depend not on how best we observe laws, but how best we keep the spirit of it.
Question Yourself:
How far I understand Jesus’ concern onto others?

Why should I go after my offenders and reconcile with them?

Comments

Post a Comment

write your comments here!!

Popular posts from this blog

Reflection On Mark 8: 11-13

There is a proverb which states, “There are none so blind as those who won’t see.”  It means if your mind is set on one direction, it will be almost impossible to convince you of something different. Such is the frame of mind of the Pharisees concerning Jesus. When they approach Him and ask for a sign from heaven, their mind is already made up that Jesus is fake. Their intention is to expose Him as such and thus to undermine his authority and even hopefully, to completely discredit Him and have Him lose popular support. The Pharisees were the perennial negative critics of Jesus. They were the many little crosses He had to accept and carry every day prior to His big cross. Notice how they boldly stepped forward here and immediately started to argue with Jesus. They refused to take the Lord’s words at face value. They claimed a sign from the heavens would enable them to place their faith in the Lord, but Jesus knew that even the most spectacular signs would not convince them to a...
Read more

Reflection On Mark 1: 12-15

In the reading, we get two messages for today. Jesus’ forty days of wilderness and a call to repentance.  Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness paralleled Israel’s forty years in the wilderness. In both the instances, there is the apparent ‘absence of God.’ The presence of God emerges as a result of struggle and testing. Satan tests Jesus in the wilderness, whereas Israel tested God there. Our Lord’s suffering, hunger, loneliness and humiliation at the hands of His enemies were all for us. This very thought should make us feel gladly welcome the little bit of suffering and humiliation we are to take for ourselves in our routines. One may not be in strict fasting from food and drink, yet there are subtle ways of observing penance in our daily lives – a controlled temper, less uncharitable talks, a little help, etc. which will help to keep our unruly minds and bodies in cheek, while at the same time it will show that we are grateful to our loving Savior for all that He suffered for u...
Read more

Reflection On Luke 4: 24-30

Today’s readings speak to the subject of God’s broad mindedness in the person of Naaman. He was the Syrian army commander who became the recipient of God’s merciful healing. Jesus was totally aware of this man’s is having been cured of leprosy and, In turn, made comment on the meaning of this healing. Those legally loyal Jewish people became very angry with Jesus as they listened to the virtues of this foreigner being extolled over their own. We, too, can fall into this same sin of narrow-mindedness. Do we think, for example, that Catholics have a monopoly on the whole truth and nothing but the truth, while Protestants, Orthodox, Jewish and other people are all in unyielding error? If we truly feel that way, may God help us. Catholics don’t own God; either do the Protestants or the Jews or any other group. Not even the fundamentalists can claim exclusive rights to God. God is for all people. The Jews thought that the Messiah would be for the Jews only. Since Jesus did ...
Read more