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How to read the Sermon on the Mount
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
February 16, 2026
If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you;
if you trust in God, you too shall live;
he has set before you fire and water
to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand.
Before man are life and death, good and evil,
whichever he chooses shall be given him.
Immense is the wisdom of the Lord;
he is mighty in power, and all-seeing.
The eyes of God are on those who fear him;
he understands man's every deed.
No one does he command to act unjustly,
to none does he give license to sin.
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
R. (1b) Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Be good to your servant, that I may live
and keep your words.
Open my eyes, that I may consider
the wonders of your law.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Instruct me, O LORD, in the way of your statutes,
that I may exactly observe them.
Give me discernment, that I may observe your law
and keep it with all my heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Brothers and sisters:
We speak a wisdom to those who are mature,
not a wisdom of this age,
nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away.
Rather, we speak God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden,
which God predetermined before the ages for our glory,
and which none of the rulers of this age knew;
for, if they had known it,
they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written:
What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard,
and what has not entered the human heart,
what God has prepared for those who love him,
this God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
For the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God.
Jesus said to his disciples:
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses
that of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.
But I say to you,
whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment;
and whoever says to his brother, 'Raqa,'
will be answerable to the Sanhedrin;
and whoever says, 'You fool,'
will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar,
and there recall that your brother
has anything against you,
leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother,
and then come and offer your gift.
Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court.
Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge,
and the judge will hand you over to the guard,
and you will be thrown into prison.
Amen, I say to you,
you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.
"You have heard that it was said,
You shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you,
everyone who looks at a woman with lust
has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
If your right eye causes you to sin,
tear it out and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna.
And if your right hand causes you to sin,
cut it off and throw it away.
It is better for you to lose one of your members
than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.
"It was also said,
Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce.
But I say to you,
whoever divorces his wife - unless the marriage is unlawful -
causes her to commit adultery,
and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
"Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors,
Do not take a false oath,
but make good to the Lord all that you vow.
But I say to you, do not swear at all;
not by heaven, for it is God's throne;
nor by the earth, for it is his footstool;
nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.
Do not swear by your head,
for you cannot make a single hair white or black.
Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.'
Anything more is from the evil one."
There's always something new to be discovered in the Scriptures. Looking at the way Matthew has put together this version of Jeshua's teaching, he opens with the Beatitudes and dedicates most of what follows to illustrate a different way of interpreting the Law. But as a prelude we find the passage about salt of the earth, light of the world. What is this doing here?
Is it just a filler, an aside, as if Matthew wondered where he might insert this colourful but inconseqential couplet. I don't think so. Rather, I see Jeshua calling his close associates into a huddle and telling them: "Look, today we're going to be talking about new standards. Some of what you're going to hear will shock you. But I need you to be on your toes. You're going to be the salt that puts the zing back into life, You're going to be like a beacon of light. People will come to read the new style by your light. They'll see that it works by the way you live and talk and think. They'll get a taste of it from associating with you, and they'll like the taste."
And then the narrative plunges straight into a welter of up-side-down thinking, starting with Law and how we should see it. There's something important here we need to look at. Jeshua says: "Whoever breaks one of these least commandments and teachers others to do the same will be the least in the kingdom..." For us, to 'break a law' is an infringement; this injunction seems to say that any least infringement will have dire consequences. But that is the attitude of the scrupulous - not a healthy one. I wonder are we reading this right?
So we look up the word the original Greek text has for "break" and we find it can mean "lessen", "loosen", "slacken off". I would add "water down". So we are talking about standards, not laws formulated in words. The written law is not important except to the enforcers and the courts. Here we are talking about the standards which the written law points to. The gospel injuction is warning against watering down any of the standards that the law expresses.
This was a burning issue at the time Jeshua travelled around Galilee; the pharisees had made an industry of defining the minimum requirements needed to fulfill the law. The problem for Jeshua was that this attitude corrupts the very nature of our freedom. All the focus falls on performance instead of intention, effort, striving. Sports coaches know the importance of encouraging more effort, and they never forget that performance will always fall short of the goal. On occasion "your best" will be enough for a gold medal, but you can never afford to lower the bar. Jeshua is saying that anyone who lowers the bar and teaches others to go the same way is no good on his team. He will send such a person right down the back.
*****
It will be well to remember this as we read the next four paragraphs - that we are dealing not with "laws" but with standards. Four major issues are covered: respect for the other person; respect in our most intimate relationship; respect for the basic community of marriage; and respect for the truth in the way we speak. Just a brief comment on each.
Recently our government has tried to make laws to counter the rise of hate among us. This passage at the head of Jeshua's great charter is crucial in this attempt, but we have to see it as pointing to the intention, the inner disposition not to the mere performance of some law. Law can only be effective if an infringement can be punished, and in this case that is only possible if certain words or deeds are declared to be infringements. A number of people have said that is a pointless exercise because it does not touch the real issue.
Jeshua makes the point over and over that we can only get better as a society if as individuals we straighten out our attiudes and clean up our inner disposition. As long as we see ourselves as superior to others, look down on those who have different coloured skin, or who speak differently, or dress in a way we find a bit off-putting - as long as these attitudes persist we are failing in the basic respect we owe every other person.
In passing we might note some very pragmatic advice from Jeshua about not going to court for justice, because the legal system is a very crude instrument. Sort it out between yourselves, he says, and as a bonus this process will have you change the way you feel about the person who has hurt you. In a word: you will 'get over it'.
*****
Then we come to adultery and the hot topic of lustful thoughts. It might seem obvious that wanting someone who is not ours to want is wrong, because the thought leads to the intention and the intention to action - given the opportunity. Our world, however, uses sexual desire as a fuel to stimulate the economy making it all pervasive. The sexual revolution that took hold in the sixties has changed society, and with many good effects. Even in the face of aberrations like the current Epstein scandals, people have learned to fight back, to defend their dignity and demand just punishment for abusers. The issue remains the same, of course. Nothing is right until our secret thoughts and desires are right. The responsibility again falls on us as individuals: to be salt to the earth, light to the world.
We will leave the vexed question of divorce without further comment. Likewise one word is enough about the embargo on oaths. It is a matter of being true, of speaking true, and of course of thinking true. 'Yes' and 'No' is enough if you mean it, and if you don't, all the solemn oaths are but weights around your neck. They will take you to the bottom of the sea.
*****
I've been wondering is there a key that will allow us to get to the heart of all this teaching? I believe it can be found in the last line of chapter 5: "Be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." But here again interpretation is necessary. 'Be perfect' is surely not a moral injunction. Would it be better translated 'Be complete!' 'Be totally committed!'? Referring to half-measures and compromise it says: "Drop the charade of minimalist obedience to law, of negative 'innocence by avoidance', of 'not getting caught', and put your heart into giving a response of love to life itself. We would say, less kindly: "Just grow up!"