As the Church marks the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Fr. Edmund Power reflects on the theme: “On tablets of human hearts”.
By Fr. Edmund Power, OSB
All four Gospels tell us about the stone that was rolled from the entrance to the tomb of Jesus and today, as every Sunday, we are celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord.
Not limiting ourselves to the purely literal, we could view the hard stone as a symbol of what blocks us from seeing the emptiness of death.
St Paul develops the image of stone is another direction, offering a reflection on the contrast between words written not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts (2 Cor 3:3). Behind his thought is the image of Moses on the mountain bringing down the tablets of the Law. And there is also the prophecy of Ezekiel, I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh (Ezek 36:26).
Are you hard of heart? The gospel passage for this Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time offers us a reflection on the Law. Matthew has been called the didactic Gospel and in these weeks we are reading the Sermon on the Mount, the first systematic exposition of the teaching of Jesus.
In the twenty verses of the text, he gives us a series of instructions about how to live as his followers. What he seems to be suggesting is an interiorization of the Law: it is not a question of external observance, a mere satisfaction of the letter. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
How might our righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? Presumably through a transformation of heart, from a legalism that can so easily become rigid, cold and too easily satisfied, to something warmer and more compassionate and flexible.
Jesus comments on three of the Ten Commandments so as to illustrate this inner embrace of what the Law is really about: the fifth (you shall not kill), the sixth (you shall not commit adultery) and the eighth (you shall not swear falsely). While he seems to make these commandments more difficult, in fact he is teaching a conversion of heart that welcomes their deeper and more pervasive implications.
It reminds me of the chapter on humility in the Rule of St Benedict, where he talks about various levels of motivation for obedience: fear of punishment and desire for approval would be the lowest; the development of a habit of obedience is another; then there is delight in virtue, and lastly, the highest level: love of Christ (RB 7:67-69).
Just as Jesus, elsewhere in Matthew’s Gospel, reduces the Law to its essentials (Mt 22:36-40), so here, in a different way, he expands the letter of the Law so as to embrace the full demanding requirements of love; his seriousness is emphasized by his listing some grim consequences of taking the teaching lightly.
If we feel threatened by today’s gospel, we should remember the implication of the verses that follow it, verses we will not hear because we are on the threshold of Lent: we are told to love our enemies with a love that is gratuitous and expects nothing, a love that does not have to be earned; its measure is the Father’s love for us.
We don’t seek to love God and our neighbour so that God will love us: rather, God loves us, and therefore we seek to love in return, as a response of gratitude.
