Today’s readings: Ecclesiasticus 15, 16-21; 1 Corinthians 2, 6-10; Matt 5, 17-37.

One of the major issues facing institutions, including religion, in modern times is the tension between tradition and innovation. This tension has characterised Chris­tianity not only in modernity but since Jesus’s times, and it continues to be an up­hill struggle. Today we speak of crea­tive fidelity. Being faithful to a tradition without being creative at the same time risks opting to live in the past and becoming anachronistic.

Jesus, being himself a Jew and brought up in a tradition that upheld the law of Moses, had to bring about a rupture with the past in the name of fidelity to the Father’s will. This is the new vision he presents in the long Sermon on the Mount, which starts with the Beatitudes and proposes discontinuity with a religion that no longer served its purposes.

Jesus took to task the ritualised morality of the scribes and the Pharisees, which focussed on exteriority and almost ignored the realm of the heart. The fundamental issues of daily life, that of making crucial choices between life and death, between good and evil, cannot ultimately be resolved, as the scribes and Pharisees presumed, through a codification of morality.

Jesus goes to the heart of the matter, addressing people where their deepest desires thrive and give shape to their lives. This is the bone of contention even at this historic point of the Church today. The Church can opt to hold firmly to its own tradition of codified morality, expecting people merely to obey the rules and exclude any form whatsoever of moral reasoning. That would be suicidal for religion.

The Gospel calls the Church to move on and opt instead to enhance personal and honest discernment on the part of individuals, which ultimately is more in line with the dignity of conscience and which Christian maturity to which the Gospel message of Jesus aims. This is crucial for the Church’s life and for a deeper grasp of what Christian living today is about.

One of the most important features of Jesus’ proposal in the gospel is that of setting standards. Exegetically, the gospel in its entirety needs to be read in function of human maturity and wholeness. This explains why Jesus all along goes beyond the demands of the law.

Jesus demands depth in the way we live and in the personal responsibility we are called to shoulder in our choices. This is directly the opposite of mediocrity and superficiality in religion, which serves only to trigger futile guilt trips that many a time lead us nowhere. Jesus’s proposal, in contrast with the mainstream religion of his time, ad­dress­es the virtuous man and woman. Virtue strengthens us and instils in us the courage to live and hope.

Today’s gospel makes this crystal clear: “I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven”.

The scribes and Pharisees were stuck in the past. They believed God’s will was engraved in tablets of stone, actually substituting God Himself with the written laws. They were impotent and confused when faced by Jesus, who was addressing the heart and proclaiming something new. Nothing new could emerge for them. They had it all and knew it all. They did not notice that their god was dead and that their adoration of him was idolatry.

Jesus provokes us to have great expectations, never to stop thinking and seeking. It is sad that the perception many a time we ourselves give of religion is static, backward looking, as if there is no space for God to speak afresh or for us to discover novelty in the way He works in our lives.

In today’s second reading, St Paul significantly writes about “all that God has prepared for those who love Him”, things, as he says, “beyond the mind of man”. Our life’s worth in the eyes of God goes much beyond our pettiness or the narrow-mindedness of the scribes and Pharisees who failed miserably God’s last test when, in spite of their religiosity, they missed the opportune time.

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