Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5, 20-26
Jesus said to his disciples:
“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into 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 with him.
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.”
Reconciliation
1. Justice. Your relationship with God cannot be simply reduced to compliance, to merely fulfilling norms. It goes beyond that; it implies being fair to others in life and to yourself. It’s unfair to say that you’ll go to heaven because you go to Mass, pray the rosary every day, read spiritual books, while you end up destroying with words or gestures the first person who passes by. Forgive me for being harsh today, but I want to be clear. What good does it do to be a religious rule-keeper when I lose human and even spiritual delicacy. That’s the reason why we’ve lost institutional credibility many times.
2. You shall not kill. Jesus is also clear about this. He insists that faith is not only about rules; it’s about valuing your life and the life of others. When we say, “you shall not kill”, it doesn’t refer to killing someone with a gun in the street. You actually do go around killing others in the street with a very powerful weapon: your tongue. Today we are very quick to judge and destroy people, especially on social networks. Social condemnation has been given more weight than judicial condemnation and many of us have judged others on social media even before justice has begun to look for evidence. I think we have killed many innocent people, we have destroyed many people’s self-esteem, personality, or identity, and I even dare say that we’re all a little guilty of so many young people being fearful or depressed or having no self-esteem nowadays.
3. Reconcile. We all make mistakes because no one is perfect, but the issue here is to know how to ask for forgiveness and seek reconciliation. You must recognize your limits, but also be humble enough to do the greatest act: “repent”, because self-justification is always around. Give yourself the opportunity and give others the opportunity to repent. Where there’s repentance, there’s an opportunity.
Always remember that something good is on the way.
God bless you and be with you in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
