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Pastor's Message

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.”   Matthew 5.17         

           “Brothers and Sisters: among the mature we do speak wisdom; ... God's Wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory.”

             St Paul, in the 2nd Reading today, in his 1st Letter to the Corinthians, speaks of the Wisdom that lay hidden! The Wisdom decreed by God for our glory! The question arises then; What is this, Wisdom?  This Wisdom of God, that St Paul proclaims is Christ Jesus; And Paul adds, the crucified! St. John, the Evangelist illumines us more to understand how Jesus is the Wisdom of God; through the use of the “Word,” in the place of Wisdom. In the opening verses of his Gospel, He writes; “In the beginning was the Word: The Word was with God and the Word was God.” “He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.” (John 1:1-3)

            It is always the Will of God Our Father, to reveal himself to us; human beings. God has done this through Creation, then through Abraham and his descendants, the Israelites. Then, in the fulness of time, He revealed Himself to us through his Son, Jesus; Emmanuel, God with us. This is the truth, the rulers of the age, ought to have known and if they had, they would not have crucified Jesus.

           This Wisdom of God, in whom we were illumined to know God and his generosity. This is who, exulted us in last Sunday's Gospel. Jesus, God among his people, affirmed Our significance! Our place in this World as his faithful disciples; “You are the Salt of the earth,” He told us “You are the Light of the World” “A City built on a hill cannot be hidden,” He told us.

          Today in the Gospel Reading, This Wisdom of God continues in Sermon of the Mount, to manifest his authority as the New Law Giver; “You have heard that it was said in the ancient times ... but I tell you.”

         Jesus affirms that, He comes not to abolish the Law or the Prophets but fulfill it. Jesus, as the total fulfillment of God’s Revelation, could not abolish the revelation that came before him; he would not against himself.    

          Acting upon the commandments was the privileged way of responding to God, who had chosen to enter into a Covenant relationship with Israel. Israel, however, failed in this relationship, taking the Law as a hindrance in their own pursuits. Others who observed it, fell into the temptation of “self glorification;” losing the very reason why the law was given.

         For the Salvation of a disciple, in a faithful relationship with God. Jesus, as the New Law Giver, set to re-establish “the Spirit of the Law.” Jesus willed to reveal “the Law’s transforming power.”

        Jesus endeavored to teach the avenue by which humanity returned to the glory present in the garden to Eden; where harmony and fullness of life was enjoyed because Adam and Eve, were in complete communion with God, their Creator and Father.