Gospel:
Matthew 5:20-26
Jesus
said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of
the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.
“You have
heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills
will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother
will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be
answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to
fiery Gehenna. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall
that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar,
go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your
gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise
your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over
to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will
not be released until you have paid the last penny.”
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Reflection:
A man who
was full of anger in his heart suddenly died. When he was about to enter the
pearly gates saint Peter suddenly appeared and refused him entry. When the man asked, why? Saint Peter told Him
that when he was still alive his heart was full of anger and arrogance.
Death is uncertain
it may come to us anytime. What if we
suddenly die with our hearts full of anger and arrogance? Many had been brought to perdition by anger
and arrogance yet many of us still don’t learn our lesson. Anger and arrogance
are emotional disease that originates from our egos, high sense of ourselves
and our lack of humility.
In our
gospel we find Jesus giving us lessons on humility. He tells us: if you bring
your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against
you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your
brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly
while on the way to court with him (Matthew 5:23-25).
It’s not
easy to imbibe humility but if we only know that humility makes us closer to
Jesus. If we only know that humility would save us a lot of trouble even grievous
ones. We will not think twice to imbibe humility we may even run after it and
embrace it. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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