In today’s Gospel (Matt . 5:20-37), Jesus seems to be laying down some new and strong rules for his disciples to follow. Why is he "raising the bar" so high?
Our Lord has an astonishing respect for our freedom. He’ll never force us to do something against our will, but he’ll always encourage us, and teach us to go beyond doing the least we're capable of doing, and freely choose to live a full Christian life. Both the Old and the New Testaments show numerous examples of humans making a free will choice between good and evil. In fact, as far back as the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden, scripture shows that Adam and Eve made a free will choice to disobey God, and reaped the consequences of their actions (Gen. 3:13).
Scripture tells us that God made everything "good". When it comes to humans, he chose to make us in HIS image. He doesn’t want robots or puppets; he wants a personal relationship with his children, but he’ll never force us to accept his love. His invitation to us for a heart-to-heart relationship with him is a precious gift; yet we have the freedom to reject his invitation (sadly, many do reject him). Jesus is always standing at the door of our heart, knocking (Rev. 3:20). He won’t ever force his way in; he just wants us to freely invite him in to the centre of our lives.
God told the Israelites, through Moses, that he always places before them the choice of life and death, a life with God and death without him (Dt 30:15). He commands them to obey, but leaves them the freedom to choose to disobey him (Dt 30:17) . In today's First Reading from the Wisdom of Ben Sirach (Sir 15:15-20), the same choice is given to believers, and they always retain their free will to accept or reject the Lord. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they were rejecting HIM (Luke 19:41), but what about you and me? Are our hearts and wills completely surrendered to Jesus, without conditions being attached to them?
Items #17784 and #1742 in Catechism of the Catholic Church remind us that, through the grace the Holy Spirit we’re educated in spiritual freedom so that we can be made free collaborators in Christ’s work in the Church and in the world. It’s this proper education of our conscience which guarantees our freedom.
Our Lord has an astonishing respect for our freedom. He’ll never force us to do something against our will, but he’ll always encourage us, and teach us to go beyond doing the least we're capable of doing, and freely choose to live a full Christian life. Both the Old and the New Testaments show numerous examples of humans making a free will choice between good and evil. In fact, as far back as the Genesis story of the Garden of Eden, scripture shows that Adam and Eve made a free will choice to disobey God, and reaped the consequences of their actions (Gen. 3:13).
Scripture tells us that God made everything "good". When it comes to humans, he chose to make us in HIS image. He doesn’t want robots or puppets; he wants a personal relationship with his children, but he’ll never force us to accept his love. His invitation to us for a heart-to-heart relationship with him is a precious gift; yet we have the freedom to reject his invitation (sadly, many do reject him). Jesus is always standing at the door of our heart, knocking (Rev. 3:20). He won’t ever force his way in; he just wants us to freely invite him in to the centre of our lives.
God told the Israelites, through Moses, that he always places before them the choice of life and death, a life with God and death without him (Dt 30:15). He commands them to obey, but leaves them the freedom to choose to disobey him (Dt 30:17) . In today's First Reading from the Wisdom of Ben Sirach (Sir 15:15-20), the same choice is given to believers, and they always retain their free will to accept or reject the Lord. Jesus wept over Jerusalem because they were rejecting HIM (Luke 19:41), but what about you and me? Are our hearts and wills completely surrendered to Jesus, without conditions being attached to them?
Items #17784 and #1742 in Catechism of the Catholic Church remind us that, through the grace the Holy Spirit we’re educated in spiritual freedom so that we can be made free collaborators in Christ’s work in the Church and in the world. It’s this proper education of our conscience which guarantees our freedom.
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