EPIPHANY V

Isaiah 58:1-9a, (9b-12)
1 Corinthians 2:1-12, (13-16)
Matthew 5:13-20
Psalm 112:1-9, (10)

For several weeks, the Sunday readings have been forging a connection between the Old Testament and the New. Now, in the Gospel for this week, Jesus himself makes the connection “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill”. But he adds to this, a seemingly impossible demand –“unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”.

What should we conclude from this? Should we try to live a life of intense devotion and purity? This was the response of the Desert Fathers in North Africa – St Simon Stylites, for instance, who lived at the top of a pillar for years -- and of the Celtic hermits of Ireland – St Kevin of Glendalough, for example, who stood for hours waist deep in icy water to pray. There may be something to admire about these men, but it is not a path that many of us could follow.

And as a matter of fact, even the most ascetic monks and hermits continued to brood on their spiritual impurity – a fact from which an important lesson may be drawn. To say that the greatest possible effort will never enable us to exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees sounds like a counsel of despair. Yet it points us in a crucial direction. ‘Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us’, we say. To put your faith in Jesus Christ is, first, to believe that his perfection can overcome our imperfection, and second, in that belief to commit your inmost self to God through Christ.

It is sometimes said that this is too easy a solution, using Jesus to get us off the hook. The same Gospel passage, however, assigns us a different but no less vital role – not to be perfect, but to be “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world”. While our lives as Christians will never be models of rectitude, they can still “give light to all in the house” by reflecting the light of Christ. Accepting our frailty makes us honest, and enables us to give the glory where it truly belongs -- to our Father in heaven.

‘Now you are the light of the world and salt of the earth’, abstract by  Lalo Gutierrez  – with kind permission of the artist