There is a family that I knew well. Two adult married brothers living in adjoining homes. The entire time I knew them there was a cold silence between them. They never spoke to each other and did not even recognize each other’s physical presence or wave to each other in neighborly greeting. I have no knowledge of the past offense or slight that set this enmity in motion. But it spread its toxic poison to their wives, children and friends.
When the elder brother died, his children and friends stationed themselves strategically in the funeral home to prevent anyone from the other side entering to pay their respects. They were not welcome!
For the Scribes and the Pharisees, the external fulfillment of the precepts of the Mosaic Law was the guarantee of a person’s salvation. In other words, a man saved himself through the external works of the Law.
Jesus rejects this view in today’s Gospel passage, taken from the Sermon on the Mount. You cannot save yourself.
For Jesus, justification or sanctification is a grace, a free, strengthening gift from God. Man’s role is one of cooperating with that grace by being faithful to it and using it as God means it to be used. Jesus then outlines new moral standards for His disciples.
It is interesting to note that Jesus calls for a change of mind and heart. The word is often rendered in English as ‘repent.’ But that is not quite it. Jesus uses two Greek words: Meta {beyond} and nous {mind or spirit}, and in its richest significance it means ‘go beyond the mind you have.’
The word ‘repent’ seems to call for a change of behavior or action, whereas Jesus is calling for a much deeper and more profound change of your whole being, your way of knowing, seeing, and looking at the world around you. With Jesus, we have a new state of affairs, a new way of being and perceiving.
Consequently, some relationships and situations which seem frozen and intractable, are now open to new possibilities, to new hope. Seeing with the help of the eyes, the mind, the heart of Jesus, the world and our families look very different.
So friends, today let us pray that we stop blinding ourselves from seeing with the eyes of Christ, mind and heart of Christ. Try to imagine seeing all our most difficult relationships in family and community with the lens of our Dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What a world this would be!
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