"You have heard that it was said to your ancestors . . . but I say to you . . ."
This little formula is used by St. Matthew to continue to develop his portrayal of Jesus as the new Moses. Remember that it was Moses who acted as intermediary between God and the children of Israel in teaching the commandments from Mt. Sinai. In his Gospel, St. Matthew portrays Jesus on a mount, seated as a teaching rabbi would have been seated, instructing his disciples in the commandments. In each instance Jesus asks his disciples to go beyond the letter of the Law to discover the intent on the Law.
It is important to remember that the Law is summed up in two commandments; i.e., love God and love your neighbor as yourself. The verb employed hear (namely, "love,") speaks to the Israelites of familial relationships. Later on in the Gospel, Jesus will challenge them to look beyond the family to consider everyone their neighbor. However, at this point, Jesus is simply speaking of "right relationship" between members of the same tribe, clan, and family. He chooses three of the Ten Commandments to illustrate his point.
First, there is the question of murder. To kill a member of the tribe would bring shame and dishonor on the family. However, Jesus goes beyond the act of killing to the actions that precipitate such violence. Murder is a crime of passion; so the disciples are counseled to control those passions and avoid situations that would arouse them. Name calling and argument are to be eschewed, for it is often these very actions which begin the cycle of vengeful murder.
Next Jesus speaks of the commandment against adultery. Adultery within the family would, once again, be an occasion of shame and dishonor for the family. Remember that these people lived in extended family circumstances. While adultery in our own times would be a secretive and hidden activity, for these people it would be difficult to hide such actions. Any man who was caught in the inner recesses of the home where the women and children lived would be suspected of this sin. It would usually involve sleeping with one's brother's wife who would have been, in all probability, a cousin or close relative. So Jesus counsels his disciples to guard against such actions by controlling a roving eye.
The third commandment speaks of taking oaths. Actually, this commandment refers to the commercial enterprises of the Israelites. They lived in a time before there were any consumer agencies to protect them from devious practices of merchants. Merchants would "swear an oath" to promote their product. "By my beard, this is the freshest fish in all of Israel." Jesus is asking the disciples to be honest, to be truthful when dealing with their fellow Israelites, the eighth commandment enjoining them not to bear false witness.
In almost every instance, the circumstances in which we live are completely different than those of the children of Israel. This means that we live with the challenge to make sense of the commandments for our own times. Just as Jesus reinterpreted the commandments for the people of his day, pushing the Israelites toward the intent of the Law rather than the letter of the Law, we too must look for guidance in applying the commandments to our modern situation all the while remembering the way in which Jesus opened this discussion. We do not dare to abolish the commandments but endeavor to fulfill them. Mindful that the commandments we find in the Gospel push us outside of the confines of tribe, clan and family, we are asked to embrace right relationships with all our brothers and sisters.
As we read in the Book of Sirach, if we choose, we can obey the commandments. It is righteousness for us to do so.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator