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 would not think twice to imbibe humility we may
even run after it and cling to it. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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