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| Dr. Susan Nagele with South Sudanese family. Photo credit: Sean Sprague |
Sixth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
February 16, 2020
Sir 15:15-20
1 Cor 2:6-10
Mt 5:17-37
Blessed are
they who choose to follow the law of the Lord
Psalm 119:1
I was crossing
the border between Kenya and Uganda on the way to Sudan with a friend. The border official asked our address. My friend immediately replied, “Box 10,
Nimule, Sudan”. The official wrote it
down and I kept my mouth shut while my eyes bugged out. There wasn’t a post office in Nimule let
alone a post office box. Wasn’t this a
lie? Doesn’t the 8th
commandment say, “Don’t lie”. Aren’t
details important? Why not just tell him
the truth? Today’s Gospel says that
whoever breaks one of these commandments will be least in the Kingdom of
Heaven. Later, I chided my friend about
our address and he shrugged his shoulders.
“They just need to fill in the blank,” he replied.
The first
reading makes clear that it is our choice whether or not we follow the
commandments. If we so choose, the
commandments will save us and we will live.
I was visiting
the San Egidio Community in Rome many years ago with a Maryknoll priest and at the
Eucharistic liturgy an Italian lay man gave the homily. Only a few weeks earlier, the pope had
announced that lay people could not give homilies. My priest friend asked the other Maryknoll
priests in Rome how this could happen with the recent papal announcement. One of them chuckled and said, “This is
Rome. There is the law and there is
life”. There we were, right in Vatican
City State, and it looked like the pope’s order was being flagrantly violated. But laws and legal systems change over time. It also takes time to change. Jesus, himself, said he came to fulfill the
law. That suggests interpretive process,
movement and change.
I was crossing
another border from Sudan into Uganda on my way to a hospital. I was sick with dysentery and the police were
shocked as I dragged myself into their office and asked to use their
latrine. They quickly pointed me in the
right direction and hastily wrote out permission for us to enter with our
vehicle, encouraging us to go quickly and wishing us a safe journey. Police at border crossings in East Africa are
better known for intimidation and their need for extra cash rather than
kindness. They didn’t ask for my
passport, check the car or any number of other details the law required.
The
commandments are guidelines written in black and white and can only give
parameters to the spectrum of gray along which life is lived. Jesus fleshes out some of the commandments
and other laws in today’s gospel. Killing
can begin with anger and refusal to reconcile.
Adultery can encompass lust and disrespect. Rather than making false oaths, just be
straight forward and clear about what you want to say.
The Gospel
last week came from this same passage in Matthew and told us to be salt and
light for the earth. How do we do
that? Let our righteousness surpass the
letter of the law of the scribes and Pharisees.
Let the Spirit, ‘which scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God,
illuminate those parameters and grey areas that reveal themselves in the day to
day living of our lives. In a nutshell, love
determines the essence of the law. That
police officer who chose to care about my welfare, expedite my border
crossing and wish me well was following a higher law than the rules in Uganda
and the usual behavior of police officers at border crossings.
Blessed are
they who choose to follow the law of Love
