6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 12 February
12th February 2023
6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) - 12 February
“The Holy Spirit sweetens the yoke of the divine law and lightens its weight, so that we may observe God’s commandments with the greatest of ease and even with pleasure.” - St Lawrence of Brindisi, Apostolic Doctor
A reflection on today's Gospel reading by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"The key to the Sermon on the Mount is the way [Christ] used two expressions: one was, 'You have heard' the other was the short, emphatic word, 'But.' When He said, 'You have heard,' He reached back to what human ears had heard for centuries and still hear from ethical reformers—all those rules and codes and precepts which are half measures between instinct and reason, between local customs and the highest ideals. When He said, 'You have heard,' He included the Mosaic Law, Buddha with his eightfold way, Confucius with his rules for being a gentleman, Aristotle with his natural happiness, the broadness of the Hindus, and all the humanitarian groups of our day, who would translate some of the old codes into their own language and call them a new way of life. Of all these compromises, He said, 'You have heard.'
“'You have heard that it was said, "Thou shalt not commit adultery.”' Moses had said it; pagan tribes suggested it; primitive peoples respected it. Then came the terrible and awful BUT: 'But I tell you…' 'But I tell you that he who casts his eye on a woman so as to lust after her, has already committed adultery with her in his own heart.' Our Lord went into the soul, and laid hold of thought, and branded even the desire for sin as a sin. If it was wrong to do a certain thing, it was wrong to think about that thing. He would say, 'Away with your hygiene which tries to keep hands clean after they have stolen, and bodies free from disease after they have ravished another.' He went into the depths of the heart, and branded even the intention to sin a sin. He did not wait for the evil tree to bear evil fruits. He would prevent the very sowing of the evil seed. Wait not until your hidden sins come out as psychoses and neuroses and compulsions. Get rid of them at their sources. Repent! Purge! Evil that can be put into statistics, or that can be locked in jails, is too late to remedy.
"Christ affirmed that when a man married a woman, he married both her body and her soul; he married the whole person. If he got tired of the body, he might not thrust her body away for another, since he was still responsible for her soul. So He thundered, 'You have heard.' In that expression He summarized the jargon of every decaying civilization. ‘You have heard, “Get a divorce; God does not expect you to live without happiness”’ then came the BUT. "But I tell you that the man who puts away his wife makes an adulteress of her, and whoever marries her after she has been put away, Commits adultery." (Matthew 5:32)
"What matters if the body is lost? The soul is still there, and that is worth more than the thrill a body can give, more even than the universe itself. He would keep men and women pure, not from contagion, but from desire of another; to imagine a betrayal is in itself a betrayal.
"Next, Christ laid hold of all those social theories which would say that sin was due to environment: to Grade B milk, to insufficient dance halls, to not enough spending money. Of them all He said, 'You have heard.' Then came the BUT: 'But I tell you.' He affirmed that sins, selfishness, greed, adultery, crime, theft, bribery, political corruption— all these come from man himself. The offenses result from our own will, and not from our glands; we cannot excuse our lust because our grandfather had an Oedipus complex, or because we inherited an Electra complex from our grandmother. Sin, He said, is conveyed to the soul through our body, and the body is moved by the will. In war against all false self-expressions, He thundered out His recommendations of self-operation: 'Cut it off,' and 'cut it out.'
"'If the right eye is the occasion of falling into sin, pluck it out and cast it away from thee; Better to lose one of thy limbs than to have the whole body cast into hell. And if thy right hand is an occasion of falling, cut it off and cast it away from thee; Better to lose one of thy limbs than to have thy whole body cast into hell.' (Matthew 5:29, 30)
"Men will cut off their legs and arms to save the body from gangrene or poisoning. But here Our Lord transferred circumcision of the flesh to circumcision of the heart, and advocated letting out the lifeblood of beloved lusts and hewing passions to tatters, rather than be separated from the love of God which is in Him, Christ Jesus."
(Life of Christ)
Prayer for Avoiding Sin
Heavenly Father, please hear the prayers I offer from a contrite heart. Have pity on me as I acknowledge my sins. Lead me back to the way of holiness. Protect me now and always from the wounds of sin. May I ever keep safe in all its fullness the gift Your love once gave me and Your mercy now restores.
Jesus, pour Your Precious Blood over me, my body, mind, soul, and spirit; my conscious and sub-conscious; my intellect and will; my feelings, thoughts, emotions and passions; my words and actions; my vocation, my relationships, family, friends and possessions. Protect with Your Precious Blood all other activities of my life. Lord, I dedicate all of these things to You, and I acknowledge You as Lord and Master of all.
Mary, Immaculate Conception, pure and holy Virgin Mother of Our Lord Jesus Christ, draw me under Your veil; guard me and shield me against all attacks and temptations that would violate the virtue of chastity.
Lord Jesus Christ, I beg You for the grace to remain guarded beneath the protective mantle of Mary, surrounded by the holy briar from which was taken the Holy Crown of Thorns, and saturated with Your Precious Blood in the power of the Holy Spirit, with our Guardian Angels for the greater glory of the Father. Amen. 🙏💖💐