In today’s Gospel, from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus brings us back to the basics of our faith: love of God and love of neighbor. He is opposed to the legalistic type of religion the scribes and Pharisees have built, full of petty rules which have little to do with God’s Law. “If your virtue goes no deeper than that of scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven,” He warns. Jesus healed on the sabbath, which was against the Law. He spoke to woman in public, which was taboo. Jesus says that the Pharisees had defined the Law in their own terms and that they missed the point. And so He begins to expound the Law as it pertains to six subjects: murder, adultery, divorce, oath-taking, retaliation, and love for one’s enemy. Instead of a litany of more commandments, Jesus looks to the spirit of the Law. We are called to love like God loves. It is the challenge presented by the Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ life is the kind of life we are called to live.
Being a Christian is more than following the rules, including simply attending liturgies. Jesus is getting us free to make choices that support, sustain, grow and nurture life for ourselves and one another. We choose life when we care for those who are poor, respect the dignity of every human being and protect God’s creation. We choose life when we are generous with our time, compassion, money and resources. Would anyone looking at us and listening to us know that God is at the centre of our lives? Jesus says we should love others as God does. We are to be compassionate and passionate – not lukewarm people. The Beatitudes call us to humility, simple living and peace, which often oppose prevailing values in the world. Our human lives are capable of transformation when we reflect something of God’s glory and love in our daily lives.