The readings for Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time may be found at:
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/021223.cfm
I’ll start with a public service announcement for all of the husbands out there.
Valentine’s Day is this coming Tuesday, ok?
Don’t forget what you ought to do if you want to have a right relationship with your beloved this week.
St. Matthew gives us a similar message in today’s gospel about the importance of having a right relationship with God and our brothers and sisters in Christ.
In perhaps the greatest sermon Jesus ever gave, Jesus tells us that His coming had nothing to do with any defect in the commandments.
They’re not wrong.
They may be from the Old Testament, but they’re not old fashioned - even if the tablets they appeared on weren’t as fancy as the ones we use today.
Jesus came to perfect them and to raise the bar.
And He warns anyone who tries to water them down or make them less than.
But despite His warning, how do we live the Ten Commandments?
Chances are we haven’t murdered anyone, so that’s good.
But Jesus didn’t leave it there - He told us that if we’re angry with a brother or sister, we are liable to judgment - whether we have killed anyone or not.
When we look at it that way, our performance is probably not so good.
Jesus reminds us that we are made in the image and likeness of God and as a result, not killing is not enough.
Instead, we are called to eliminate cruel and hateful actions and clear that higher bar by eliminating cruel and hateful thoughts and attitudes as well.
That’s hard to do and that’s a single commandment.
So let’s not focus on all ten, let’s try two.
Jesus tells us that the way to become great in God’s kingdom depends on how well we “Love God and to love our neighbor”.
This requires us to love God and our neighbor and all the other commandments flow naturally from there.
Loving God and our neighbor is a must.
Requirements, not suggestions.
But we get to choose how we respond. We decide.
God doesn’t decide for us.
That’s why life is hard.
And to be precise, the neighbor Jesus tells us about includes everybody who lives on the planet.
The people we like, and the people we may not.
The people who are different from us because of the color of their dress, their skin, the shape of their eyes, the language they speak, the things they believe or their station in life.
Like us, they were all created by God.
And as such, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ and we are called to love them.
God expects us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and care for those who are weak and need our help.
He calls us to love God and to love our neighbor at least as well as we love ourselves.
God gave us commandments.
God also gave us the gifts of free will and choice.
That’s why life is hard.
In today’s first reading we heard that, “Before man - are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”
Choosing life is a matter of choosing love over hate.
We are called to love the way God loves.
Jesus tells us how to do it - we are commanded to do it.
But the choice is ours.
To have a right relationship with God, doesn’t just happen.
It must be willed, chosen and practiced.
And sometimes, despite the old saying, love does actually mean having to say your sorry.
That’s why He gave us the Sacrament of Confession and we need to use it. We don’t always feel like we need it, but we do. That makes life hard too.
But if we follow His commands and get our relationship right with Him when we fall short, we not only get to serve Him in this world but we get to be happy with Him in the next.
The choice is ours.
