Preacher Fr James Heard

3rd Sunday before Lent

In this week’s gospel reading, Jesus explains that he hasn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. What might he mean by this? We can think of ‘commandments’ in different ways. One way is to think of a commandment as a strict rule to be rigidly obeyed. It’s all very clear and black and white, and the breaking of the rules bringing punishment.

Another way of looking at commandments is that they have more to do with the building of character. A commandment is a guide and the point of it is the formation of our moral character. Jesus thinks of commandments in the second way. In fact, he intensifies some of the commandments – not to kill is not enough. Even to look with hatred at a brother or sister is to kill. Jesus knows that even if we keep the commandment to not kill, we can still hate and despise others. Jesus challenged the religious leaders’ perspective on simply being moral rule keepers. Rather, commandments are guides and exhortations for the formation of our character, so that we might become people who are pure in heart, so that we might love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul and mind, and that we might love our neighbour as ourselves.

Fr James Heard