Jun 4, 2025 Written by 

First debt: a greater Justice

(Mt 5:20-26)

 

«I tell you in fact that unless your righteousness will abound more [that] of the scribes and pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven»

 

In the churches of Galilee and Syria there were different and conflicting opinions about the Law of Moses: for some an absolute to be fulfilled even in detail, for others now a meaningless frill (v.22).

The disputants went so far as to insult, to ridicule the opposing party.

 

But as the Tao Tê Ching (xxx) says: «Where the militias are stationed, thorns and brambles are born». Master Wang Pi comments: «He who promotes himself causes unrest, because he strives to affirm his merits».

 

Mt helps all community sisters and brothers to understand the content of the ancient Scriptures and grasp the attitude of ‘continuity and cut’ given by the Lord: «You have heard that [...] Now I say to you» (vv.21-22).

‘Arrow’ of the ancient codes was shot in the right direction, but only understanding its range in the spirit of concordance sustains trajectory to the point of providing the energy needed to hit the “target”.

 

Ideal of ancient religiosity was to present oneself pure before God, and in this sense the Scribes official theologians of the Sanhedrin emphasised the value of the rules that they believed were nestled in the First Testament ‘prison of the letter’.

Sadducees - the priestly class - focused on the sacrificial observances of the Torah alone.

Pharisees, leaders of popular religiosity, emphasised the respect for all traditional customs.

 

Teaching of professionals of the sacred produced in the people a sense of legalistic oppression that obscured the spirit of the Word of God and of Tradition itself.

Jesus brings out the goal: the greater Justice of Love.

The splendor, beauty and richness of the Glory of the living God is not produced in observing, but in the ability to manifest Him Present.

The right position before Father becomes - in Jesus' proposal - the right position before one's own history and that of one’s neighbor.

First «debt» is therefore a ‘global understanding’: here the Eternal is revealed.

Justice is not the product of the accumulation of righteous deeds, in view of merit: this would manifest narrowness, detachment and arrogance (a type of man of unquestioning thought).

The new Justice chases complicity with evil up to the secret roots of the heart and ideas. But not to accentuate the sense of guilt, nor to make us pursues external dreams.

Observance that does not abide in friendship, in tolerance even of oneself, in Christ who orients, would arise from an ambiguous relationship with the norm and doctrines.

 

We can overlook the childish need for approval.

The Life of God transpires in a world not of sterilised or pure and phlegmatic one-sided people, but in a conviviality of differences that resembles Him.

 

 

To internalize and live the message:

 

Where do you find the emotional nourishment you need?

What do you think of exclusive groups and their idea of ​​the ultimate court?

 

 

 [Thursday 10th wk. in O.T.  June 12, 2025]

189 Last modified on Thursday, 12 June 2025 12:00
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

And one thing is the woman before Jesus, another thing is the woman after Jesus. Jesus dignifies the woman and puts her on the same level as the man because he takes that first word of the Creator, both are “God’s image and likeness”, both; not first the man and then a little lower the woman, no, both. And the man without the woman next to him - both as mother, as sister, as bride, as work partner, as friend - that man alone is not the image of God (Pope Francis)
E una cosa è la donna prima di Gesù, un’altra cosa è la donna dopo Gesù. Gesù dignifica la donna e la mette allo stesso livello dell’uomo perché prende quella prima parola del Creatore, tutti e due sono “immagine e somiglianza di Dio”, tutti e due; non prima l’uomo e poi un pochino più in basso la donna, no, tutti e due. E l’uomo senza la donna accanto – sia come mamma, come sorella, come sposa, come compagna di lavoro, come amica – quell’uomo solo non è immagine di Dio (Papa Francesco)
Only one creature has already scaled the mountain peak: the Virgin Mary. Through her union with Jesus, her righteousness was perfect: for this reason we invoke her as Speculum iustitiae. Let us entrust ourselves to her so that she may guide our steps in fidelity to Christ’s Law (Pope Benedict)
Una sola creatura è già arrivata alla cima della montagna: la Vergine Maria. Grazie all’unione con Gesù, la sua giustizia è stata perfetta: per questo la invochiamo Speculum iustitiae. Affidiamoci a lei, perché guidi anche i nostri passi nella fedeltà alla Legge di Cristo (Papa Benedetto)
Jesus showed us with a new clarity the unifying centre of the divine laws revealed on Sinai […]  Indeed, in his life and in his Paschal Mystery Jesus brought the entire law to completion.  Uniting himself with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, he carries with us and in us the “yoke” of the law, which thereby becomes a “light burden” (Pope Benedict)
Gesù ci ha mostrato con una nuova chiarezza il centro unificante delle leggi divine rivelate sul Sinai […] Anzi, Gesù nella sua vita e nel suo mistero pasquale ha portato a compimento tutta la legge. Unendosi con noi mediante il dono dello Spirito Santo, porta con noi e in noi il "giogo" della legge, che così diventa un "carico leggero" (Papa Benedetto)
The light of our faith, in giving of oneself, does not fade but strengthens. However it can weaken if we do not nourish it with love and with charitable works. In this way the image of light complements that of salt. The Gospel passage, in fact, tells us that, as disciples of Christ, we are also “the salt of the earth” (Pope Francis)
La luce della nostra fede, donandosi, non si spegne ma si rafforza. Invece può venir meno se non la alimentiamo con l’amore e con le opere di carità. Così l’immagine della luce s’incontra con quella del sale. La pagina evangelica, infatti, ci dice che, come discepoli di Cristo, siamo anche «il sale della terra» (Papa Francesco)
First, in Nazareth, he makes him grow, raises him, educates him, but then follows him: "Your mother is there" (Pope Francis)
Prima, a Nazareth, lo fa crescere, lo alleva, lo educa, ma poi lo segue: “La tua madre è lì” (Papa Francesco)
“It is part of the mystery of God that he acts so gently, that he only gradually builds up his history within the great history of mankind; that he becomes man and so can be overlooked by his contemporaries and by the decisive forces within history; that he suffers and dies and that, having risen again, he chooses to come to mankind only through the faith (Pope Benedict, Regina Coeli 22 maggio 2011]

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