GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 3RD WEEK OF LENT, 11 MARCH 2026

Matthew 5:17-19.  Our gospel reading today occurs in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, so we need to consider it in that context.  We are reminded by the Council of Trent (De iustificacione, canon 21) that Jesus the Prophet was more than a prophet, in fact the Prophet of all prophets, because he was also a lawgiver.  The other prophets spoke God’s word in their humanity, Jesus as prophet speaks to us in both his humanity and divinity.  In our gospel reading he tells his immediate disciples that he has not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.  What he opposed was the legalism of the scribes and Pharisees of his time.  The Law, meaning the ten commandments are broad principles, all of which require profound reverence for God the “Father” (said nearly twenty times in this portion of the Sermon, indicating that such reverence has a deeply personal dimension), reverence for the lives of others, and reverence even for our enemies.  That is the essence of what the Law means for us.  The Sermon on the Mount is about discipleship and ethics but is also more than that.  It tells us just who Jesus is in his divinity, in which he shows himself the definitive interpreter of the Law, superseding all other interpreters – “but I say to you….”  It is a charter, the foundational principles, for the Kingdom which he came to proclaim.  No wonder the crowds were astonished at what he had to say (Matt 7:28-29)!  He calls us all to whole-hearted faith, trust, reverence, and obedience to The Father who gave us the law as a great gift of grace!