Yesterday I talked about how that Jesus told us that holiness wasn’t just conforming to the religious laws; it was supposed to be about interior change. In today’s Gospel, He begins to lay out what exactly that means. He fleshes out how the Old Testament’s moral law is supposed to be applied with six examples.
Most of us in this room have probably never killed someone. Jesus says it’s not enough to avoid murder. Even being angry enough to want to do so is a sin. He wants us not just to avoid the act but to transform ourselves, to evict from our hearts the very anger and violent desires that would lead us down the slippery slope towards those types of actions.
It’s a reminder that our spiritual life and our emotional life aren’t separated from each other. We aren’t spirits trapped in a body; we are beings who have both a spirit and a body. Our emotions affect our spiritual development. No matter how deeply we think we may have buried our anger, jealousy, and resentments, they cloud our minds and prevent God’s Spirit from working inside us.
We have to work to let go of past resentments, no matter how painful. To reconcile, or at the very least to humble ourselves in prayer, admitting we aren’t able to and need God’s grace to do so. Because we pray these words in the Mass: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who tresspass against us.” Those words are dangerous, aren’t they? It’s important to examine our hearts, to work on releasing those grudges we hold deep inside, and to let God cleanse us of that.
Then we can truly approach the altar of grace and mercy, and only then can we live out the law of grace that frees us. Grace doesn’t free us to do whatever we want. Jesus frees us to be capable of doing what we ought to do. Because the final catalyst of this transformation, this journey we call life, is Jesus Christ, through whom we receive in the Eucharist the transforming power of grace deep in our hearts necessary to truly forgive and be forgiven.
A reflection on the readings for Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time.