12 February 2023 – 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

On this Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we are reminded of the purity of our hearts in approaching God and our neighbour.

And the First Reading of today from the book of Ecclesiasticus tells us “if you wish, you can keep the commandments to behave faithfully within your path“. And here, dear friends, it is “if you wish, you can keep the commandments to behave faithfully within your path.” It is the freedom that is given to each and every one of us to exercise our freedom to choose for what is right, to choose for what is good.

And all of us, in our path of discipleship, are given this opportunity to purify those intentions, to purify those motivations in how we grow in our relationship with God and with one another.

The Responsorial Psalm tells us those who follow God’s law are happy – “They are happy who follow God’s law.” And as we journey together, as we take this path of growing in our discipleship, the more we know God, the more we understand the workings of God in our lives. We are called to purify our motives, to purify our intentions that we are able to allow the spirit of God to mold us and shape us to be more and more into what God is like.

In the Gospel today, dear friends, He gives us this whole aspect of following the Law. And sometimes when we look at our own conformity to the law, we follow this, we follow that, we follow everything that the commands of the Lord requires us to do as if it is like a checklist that we tick. We have done this, we have followed all the ten commandments, we are not doing this, we are not doing that. And when we follow that in that box, dear friends, we come to realise that the conformity of the law sometimes gets us away from what the Lord truly, truly wants to tell us. Because when we just follow the law for the sake of following the law, then we are unable to allow our hearts to challenge us, to mold us to be more and more like God.

Like the Scribes and the Pharisees in today’s Gospel, they followed everything and the commands of the law that was required. But their hearts were far from God. And sometimes, dear friends, we can get caught up in this trap. As we conform with the law of God, our hearts may be distanced away. And that is why he says in the Gospel today:-

For I tell you, if your virtue goes no deeper than that of the Scribes and Pharisees, you will never get to enter into the kingdom of heaven.

And I am sure, dear friends, each one of us, as we take this path of discipleship, we want to enter the kingdom of heaven. We want to do all we can to enter into this dwelling place of God because we know that deep down in our hearts that is where God resides. More than external observances, we are called to dig deeper to where we are called to be, what we are called to do.

The Scribes and Pharisees followed so much of the external of the law and they were not able to dig deeper to where the Lord was purifying them and leading them because the motivation of them following the law was not motivated by love, but by just conformity.

So as we approach the table of the Lord today, we are called to ask ourselves:-

Are we approaching or following the law of God, the commandments of God with a heart of conformity, or a heart of love?

And he says “the root of all our actions stems from the heart.” And sometimes we tend to judge people by the external observances of what they do, how they act and our own perceptions of our own experiences as well. That is how we colour our decisions and our perception of people.

And today, the Gospel invites us to dig deeper, to direct our actions and our thoughts to the love that God has for us. Because, dear friends, when we enter into the depths of God, when we allow ourselves to be immersed in prayer, to allow the Holy Spirit to change us and mold us and to look at the right intentions of why we do what we do, then our perception of things, our perception of people, our perception of the way we carry out our things can be totally different.

Like the Gospel again, he says “if you follow the commandments of God, you have learned how it was said to your ancestors: You must not kill.” But how often, dear friends, when we hurt people because of our own words, because of our own actions. And sometimes the words we say and we express can be something that goes beyond just mere utterance of words.

And secondly, when we learn how it was said “You must not commit adultery,” here too when we are utter those words of slander, of gossip, of things that are not of God, we need to ask ourselves once again where are we in our relationship with God. Because the depths of God, dear friends, reveals to us that we must allow ourselves to be molded, to be purified with the intentions of the Holy Spirit so that we are able to stay true to ourselves.

And all we need to do is to say ‘Yes‘ if we mean yes and to say ‘No‘ when we mean no.

So, dear friends, take this path and this journey forward, in this walk of our discipleship, let us pray that we may not just conform to the laws of God but allow ourselves to be molded and shaped by the Holy Spirit to purify our motivations and intentions. That we may remain true to our calling in saying ‘Yes‘. In saying ‘Yes‘, we are being obedient to the will and the plan of God. Because more than external observances, we dig deeper into ourselves, ask God how are we embracing the situation that is put before us.

And with that obedience of saying ‘Yes‘ to Him, with that obedience of purify our motivation to seek what is good, what is right, what is true, then we are able to acknowledge the blessings that God gives us.

And let us resound once again, dear friends, the Responsorial Psalm which says:-

They are happy who follow God’s law

If we are motivated by love of following the law of God, with the purity of heart, then whatever we do, whatever obstacles that we are faced with, we know that it is motivated by love and we are fulfilling what God has come to do in our lives. To seek the truth in love and to allow the Holy Spirit to dwell in us and to make a difference in the live of one another.

Let us pray, dear friends, for this grace to be happy, to be joyous in following the commandments of God as we take this step forward in our walk of discipleship, trusting in His providential care for us and obedience to the will and the law of God.

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