Shikrot Mpwi - Sunday Synopsis with Fr. Justine J. Dyikuk  

 Sixth Sunday of the Year, A – Feb 12, 2017

Readings: Sir 15:15-20; Responsorial Psalm Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34; 1st Cor 2:6-10; Gospel Mat 5:17-37 or Mat 5:20-22A, 27-28, 33-34A, 37.

Theme:  Salvation: Our Choice, Our Chance!

Friends in Christ, our Sunday Liturgy puts before us a God who not only created us in His image and likeness but gave us freedom and respects our choices. Nothing could be loftier than creating free beings who have the capacity to decide what they want to do with their lives. If He wanted, God would have created human beings without freedom which means that we wouldn’t have being different from robots.

We probably would have been like a remote-control in the hands of an operator. But to demonstrate his benevolence to creators whom He cherishes and respects, God decided to put before us right and wrong, good and bad as well as clearly laying out the implication of our choices which could make or mar us.

This is precisely the message of our first reading (Sir 15:15-20) wherein Ben Sirach tells the people of Israel as he says to us today, “if you choose you can keep the commandments.” The Wisdom book further discloses that “…he has set before you fire and water to whichever you choose, stretch forth your hand. Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”

In the daily events of our lives, we make choices – the choice to a better education; the choice of sustainable career, jobs and finances; the choice to healthy meals; the choice to good medical care; the choice to luxurious cars; the choice to state of the art mansions and the choice to finest clothing – the summary of our choices is that we often make good choices. However, most times, we fall short of making good choices for our faith.   

Today, we are reminded that God does not force Himself or His Choices on us. On the contrary, He respects our choices although He makes the implication of our actions very clear to us. This is why Sirach adds that keeping the commandments of God would safe us while trusting in Him would make us live. That is not all, he also assures that “the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him.” Since God understands everyone’s deeds, Ben Sirach insists that “No one does he command to act unjustly, to none does he give license to sin.” This demonstrates God’s super-abundant gratuitousness to His creatures in that we become responsible for our actions, good or bad. 

The word responsible plays out in our liturgy because every choice presupposes responsibility. Responsibility as a word is a combination of two words, response and ability; this means that as God’s creatures, the onus lies on us to respond to the various God-given abilities in us.  This is because we are dealing with a God who is rich in wisdom, as Saint Paul tells us in the second reading (1st Cor 2:6-10). He reveals this wisdom to us through His spirit as the spirit scrutinizes everything, even His depths. Only a loving God would let us into His depths through His spirit leaving in us.

The gospel (Mat 5:17-37) sums up the theme of our Sunday message namely: “Salvation: Our Choice, Our Chance.” To drive home the point, the Matthean text notes that it is up to us to shun mortal sins such as killing, adultery, lust, divorce and swearing. What is more, Jesus instructs that He has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it - Jesus fulfills the law by establishing a new law of freedom which calls us to avoid scandal and eye-service so as to embrace genuine holiness. By this call, we are to avoid the hypocritical pontification of the Scribes and Pharisees.

The implication of our readings is that we must not abuse our freedom by going the way of the flesh or the unrighteous – The summary of our liturgy is that there is no force in the call to holiness. However, we cannot escape the wrath of God if we make wrong choices. Making heaven is hypothetical – “if” we choose to keep God’s commandments; “if” we trust in God and “if” we choose life. The choice is ours and the time starts now...