Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February 16, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 5:17-37<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus is accused of unfaithful to the Law of Moses and the traditions of\nthe elders. He no longer requires His disciples to performs ceremonial washings\nand many traditions of the elders [Mat 15:2]. Jesus heals people even during\nthe Sabbath [Mark 3:1-6]. Jesus declares that all food is clean [Mark 7:19].\nThe worst part is when Jesus commands His disciples to drink His blood [see Lev\n17:14; Mat 26:27-28]. Is Jesus breaking and changing the Law of Moses?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Jesus makes a bold statement against His accusers, \u201cDo not think\nthat I come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.\u201d The real and tough question\nis how Jesus completes the Law? Jesus\u2019 answer is simple: by returning to\noriginal plans of God, or simply put, by going back to the essential. However,\nto go back to the essential, Jesus has to unload centuries-old unnecessary\naddition to the fundamental Law. Jesus has to remove tons of unessential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, the basic logic is: before we set aside the unessential, we need to\nknow first what the essential is. For Jesus, what is essential and the original\nplan of God? Simply put, God wants us to share His divine life and happiness.\nTo share this life, men and women have to give their hearts totally to God.\nAnd, Jesus understands that to give our hearts for the Lord, we need to purify\nour hearts. \u201c\u2026 because from the heart comes to all evil things\u2026[Mar 7:21]\u201d and\n\u201cBlessed are the pure in heart because they will see God [Mat 5:8].\u201d No wonder,\nin today\u2019s Gospel, to fulfill the Law, we need to purify our hearts from all\nnegative emotions and thoughts. We must cleanse our hearts from prolonged\nanger, hatred, and vengeance because these things will breed violence and worse\nevil. We shall clean our hearts from lust because it simply leads to sexual\nimmorality. Even Jesus hates divorce because it is the product of the hardness\nof our hearts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One time, when I was still a brother, I listened to the sharing of some\npeople who have become the victims of a child abused. Here I meet Rio [not his\nreal name]. He told me that he was sexually abused by his father when he was\naround ten years. The incidents left him deeply traumatized, he grew up with\nsome problems, and the situations brought him into despair. He event attempted\nto commit suicide, but fortunately, his friends came to his rescue. However,\nyears later, when he heard that his father got a stroke, and it left him\nparalyzed, he decided to go home and take care of his father. I asked him what\nmade him return and forgive his father? He said that it was challenging because\nof anger and hatred, but he realized that he had to forgive his father not\nbecause his father asks for it, but because he deserved peace of mind. Now, he\nreturned to purify his broken heart with a sacrificial love towards his father.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Are we willing to remove non-essentials from our hearts? Are we willing\nto offer our hearts to the Lord? Are our hearts pure enough to be offered to\nthe Lord? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]
\nFebruary 16, 2020
\nMat 5:17-37<\/p>\n
Jesus is accused of unfaithful to the Law of Moses and the traditions of the elders. He no longer requires His disciples to performs ceremonial washings and many traditions of the elders [Mat 15:2]. Jesus heals people even during the Sabbath [Mark 3:1-6]. Jesus declares that all food is clean [Mark 7:19]. The worst part is when Jesus commands His disciples to drink His blood [see Lev 17:14; Mat 26:27-28]. Is Jesus breaking and changing the Law of Moses?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-9192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9192"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9198,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9192\/revisions\/9198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}