A car driver was recently caught speeding by a police patrol and consequently, he was harshly punished with a high fine and points on his licence. So far so familiar. What was unusual in that story was the driver’s reaction. Normally, such offenders present some excuses that are supposed to justify their actions. Or they plead for leniency and promise not to do it again. Or they aggressively accuse police officers of persecuting “innocent people” instead of dealing with “real criminals”. These are just a few common scenarios. What they have in common is their purpose: to weasel out of facing the painful consequences of breaching the highway code. It hardly ever leads to a permanent change of behaviour. This is where my opening story had an unusual ending. Having accepted the fine and penalty points, the driver sent an email to the local police station and thanked the officers for opening his eyes to his folly and irresponsibility. They had helped him to understand that his wife and two young children travelling with him had been exposed to serious, even potentially fatal danger. It must be said that the man wrote the email out of his own will – it was not required or expected. The driver decided to drive safely in future, which was a brave declaration in a country where “the law is for breaching” (as a local saying goes) and driving within the speed limit is for “the weak”. So, this true story didn’t happen in Scotland… But it does show that the law can change people for the better.
“Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.” This opening line in today’s gospel reading set the framework for Jesus’ more specific and detailed presentation, following the more general, manifesto-like proclamation of the Beatitudes as we heard them a couple of weeks ago. There and then I presented their wider context as the promulgation of the new law by Jesus as the New Moses. The main difference between those two legal systems was that while the old one drew a baseline (essentially “do no harm”), the new one pointed towards everyday heroism of charitable love (essentially “do good”). However, in the mind of St Matthew, the author of the gospel, the purpose of both dispensations was similar: forming a new people in the image of God who is love (see Genesis 1:27 & 1 John 4:8). While the Commandments remained the starting point, the law of the gospel was a call to much higher standards. This connection between the two laws is clearly visible in the repeated opening of each illustration in today’s gospel: “You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not [da da da]. But I say this to you: [da da da]”. Jesus didn’t reject the commandments of old but offered a more demanding, higher-level application of them.
On the face of it, this new interpretation and application of the Ten Commandments is frustratingly challenging and seemingly beyond the reach of normal humans: “anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court” or “if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” The first seems impossible because tensions and conflict are an unavoidable part of our social interactions; the other one is hard because men generally are hardwired to see the opposite sex as potential sexual partners. The solution that follows this particular case is even more shocking and undoable: “If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” Surely, Jesus couldn’t have been promoting self-harm as the way of dealing with our natural instincts! That’s the danger of reading the Bible literally – it might lead to wrong conclusions and do more harm than good. What we see in today’s gospel, as in many other biblical passages, is the use of literary devices in order to draw and/or maintain people’s attention. It’s a technique used by writers and public speakers since time immemorial. Last Tuesday, having read out at Mass the biblical passage on the creation of the universe in seven days, I said from the pulpit that all that had been total nonsense. At that instant, those in the pews looked up at me in alarm as you don’t expect an ordinary Catholic priest like me to publicly scorn the Bible. Those poor souls were woken up from their semi-slumber and pricked up their ears – exactly what I had wanted to achieve. Then I proceeded with my short sermon focused on the biblical passage in question. Even better, after Mass, I had an interesting conversation with a parishioner. The literary device of “shock” worked for me as well as it had done for Jesus. But it is always only a vehicle for introducing and presenting a greater idea behind it.
There are four slides in Jesus’ PowerPoint presentation in today’s gospel. Let’s briefly look closely at a couple of them to see a certain pattern in Jesus’ approach. The first one refers to the fifth commandment: “You must not kill. […] But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it[…]” In conflicts and arguments, negative emotions can run high. One of the most common, instinctive tactics is to belittle the opponent, to make them inferior or to completely dehumanise them because then it’s much easier to deal with them decisively. Calling people names can be the first, tiny step towards greater dislike and consequently hate. When we allow it to happen to us, we set ourselves on a dangerous path. Most acts of horrendous violence develop over time when seemingly inconsequential initial upsets are left to brew until they boil over.
In a similar vein, Jesus presented his second slide, this time referring to the sixth commandment: “You must not commit adultery. But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” These days we use fancy terms like misogyny or sexism to describe an attitude as old as humankind. It’s deeply rooted in males’ evolutionary, instinctive hard-wiring to see females as potential sexual partners. I haven’t said that to justify any inappropriate or downright criminal behaviour towards women; but we have to understand the mechanism behind such attitudes in order to effectively deal with them. Jesus’ argument was that we have to actively and consciously counteract instinctive objectification of women and men by their “personification”. In less fancy words, we have to make an effort to see a person with all their complex history, needs, desires and so on; someone who is worth respect and love because of their ingrained dignity as human beings; not an object that can be used and abused. Jesus’ call for tearing out our limbs to stop us from sliding into the wrong attitude is the call to be on guard and nip the problem in the bud. The proliferation of pornography has recently been identified as one of the main reasons for violence against women. This shouldn’t surprise anyone as the worst kind of sexual objectification of women lies at the very core of it.
We can see that the main purpose of Jesus’ new law is the restoration of the divine plan: “God created humankind in his image, […] male and female he created them.” We are called to see others as equal in the inherited dignity of God’s children. We are called to counteract our instinctive attitudes and reactions with a proactive change of mind, followed up by appropriate and relevant actions. This isn’t a one-off thing but a permanent, life-long process. To describe it, the gospels use the Greek word metanoia usually translated as repentance and conversion. With Lent approaching fast we will hear that call more often. Don’t ignore it. The future of the world depends on you.
