Carmelite homily for Sunday, February 16, 2020 – Lectionary 76 (Matthew 5:17-37)
In today’s Gospel passage there’s certainly a lot going on – and it’s all kinda negative. Jesus first talks about anger and then resentment and then unforgiveness and then lust and then swearing and lying. Why is all this part of the Sermon on the Mount? And how does it all tie together? Actually, I think, one word – ego. It’s all about me – having my appetites met, my righteousness met, my self-righteousness – everything about me. That’s the call: to get beyond me. To get deeper, to my heart. Saint John of the Cross writes, “Deny your desires and you will find what your heart longs. For how do you really know that any of your desires are according to God?” I think that’s the call of the whole Sermon on the Mount – to get beyond your desires, your appetites, your ego, you. Into your heart where truth and life and love and depth and God live. And work out of and live out of there. That’s the call of today’s Gospel.