[00:00:05] Hello, my name is Sally Moriarty-Flask. Welcome to: From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast. Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, February 15, 2026, the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
If you are a member of my home parish, you are already aware that this week we are celebrating the 9th Anniversary of the Dedication of our current church building rather than the Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. We will be using different readings for that liturgy, and you will find them in Episode 91 | On This Rock.
This week's regular episode is entitled: Fulfill Not Abolish, and in these readings, we are reminded that the law God first gave to the Chosen People in the Old Testament is not null and void. In fact, Jesus says that he has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it… which often happens in ways we can't anticipate and in ways that demand more from us than mere ritual obedience!
[00:01:21] As we journey through these readings, consider the following:
In the Gospel, Jesus redefines evil and sets a higher standard for what is good… but Sirach tells us that the choice to obey God's command is ours alone. Paul tells us that God has an unimaginable reward prepared for us in heaven, but that we can either accept or reject that reward. At the heart of all of this is love… God's love for us and our love for him. However, if we truly and deeply love God, then we must love each other. Is there enough love left to do that in our troubled and divided world?
Let's begin in prayer:
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the gift of your divine love that was made Incarnate and dwelt in our midst. Teach us how to generously and eagerly share the love you continue to shower upon us, not only with family and friends, but just as importantly, with strangers and enemies. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:56] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is telling us in the Scriptures.
Our Gospel this week is from Matthew 5: 17-37.
[00:03:09] “[Jesus said to his disciples:] ‘Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them. For truly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not kill; and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council, and whoever says, “You fool!” shall be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. It was also said, “Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.” But I say to you that every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old, “You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.” But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply “Yes” or “No”; anything more than this comes from the Evil One.’”
[00:06:56] As you just heard, this is an extremely long passage, although there is a shorter option that parishes may choose to use if they are so inclined. As I said back at the beginning of this episode, my home parish will celebrate the 9th Anniversary of the Dedication of our current church building this week and we won't hear these readings at all. Instead, we will hear different readings the church assigns for those dedication liturgies.
However, the regular readings assigned to this week continue, for the third Sunday in a row, with a passage from the Sermon on the Mount… and the beginning of this passage contains Jesus’ most extensive treatment of the Torah, the Jewish law.
[00:07:48] But Jesus goes beyond what the law says - beyond the mere words, beyond just the letter of the law - and goes all the way to feelings and intentions. The feelings and intentions of the people who are supposed to obey the law!
[00:08:13] Much like the Beatitudes that began this sermon, which Jesus used to teach his disciples about life and blessings in a new and radically different way, Jesus now revisits the law in a new and radically different way.
[00:08:32] He is teaching his followers that adherence to the law will no longer be sufficient, they will be held to a higher standard!
[00:08:44] Now, the shorter version sort of cherry picks pieces of this passage… it includes the “You have heard it said” statements, but omits Jesus’ explanations - his reasons for making those statements. I hope your parish chooses to use the entire Gospel. It gives us a richer presentation of what Jesus teaches. Regardless of what any individual parish chooses, we will dive into everything Jesus has to say to us this week…
“[Jesus said to his disciples:]
Again, Jesus is speaking to those of his followers that are already committed to the path of discipleship. And he says…
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets;”
When Jesus says the law and the prophets, that is a shorthand way of referring to the entirety of the Jewish Scriptures - what Christians call the Old Testament. And so many times, Christians do - unfortunately - think that is exactly what Jesus came to do… to abolish the law! But that is a heresy! It's called Marcionism… it arose in the 2nd century (and yes, I did say the 2nd century - around 144 AD to be exact)… and Marcionism taught that the God of the Old Testament was a malicious and vindictive being, while the God of the New Testament was benevolent and loving.
Marcion contended that the entire Old Testament and, as it turned out, most of what ended up being the New Testament had to be rejected. Such wrong thinking was soundly condemned at the time - most famously by Tertullian, who wrote a five-volume treatise aptly entitled: Against Marcion - and it has continued to be condemned down through the ages.
You've heard me quote Saint Augustine time and again saying that the New Testament is hidden in the Old and the Old Testament is revealed in the New. That captures for us why the Old Testament is so vitally important for Christians… why we can't ever stop studying it. The entirety of the Bible is the inspired word of God, both the Old and the New Testaments. Therefore, we should always study it because it always has more to teach us.
[00:11:33] Jesus continues…
“I have come not to abolish them but to fulfil them.”
[00:11:40] And as Jesus’ public ministry unfolded, he did fulfill the law… by his teachings and by his Passion and Death.
[00:11:52] Through his teachings, Jesus not only retained but further refined the moral law recorded in the Old Testament, beginning with the Ten Commandments. A lot of that refinement was, was established right here in the Sermon on the Mount, but this was just the beginning. Jesus spent three years preaching, healing, and teaching.
[00:12:22] And by his Passion and Death, Jesus established a New Covenant… which includes the Old Covenant, but it also concludes the Old Covenant. Jesus' self-sacrifice on the Cross brought to a conclusion, once and for all, the sacrificial law of the Old Covenant… it fulfilled that sacrificial law for all time.
[00:12:55] No longer would it be necessary to offer animal sacrifices in the temple - Jesus, the Lamb of God, was the last and perfect sacrifice… a sacrifice that is made truly and substantially present at every Mass.
[00:13:17] Catholic theology calls that anamnesis… and Jesus told his disciples at the Last Supper that whenever we remember his actions at that meal, which is every time the Mass is celebrated, when we “do this in memory of” him, then - as author Thomas Griffin wrote: we make the moment of Jesus’ offering on the Cross present and real, we enter into that one exact moment in history when he was scourged for our offenses and wounded for our sins. Jesus continues…
“For truly, I say to you,”
In other words… listen closely, this is important!
“till heaven and earth pass away,”
Meaning the Second Coming at the end of time.
“not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.”
Iota and dot seem like the same insignificant thing to many Christians because few of us study ancient languages… but they are, in reality, both very important in their own right and very different from each other. And while that very insignificance is, sort of, what Jesus is alluding to, both iotas and dots have a profound impact on how words are written or spoken, which can, in turn, alter their meaning. So, Jesus is saying - essentially - that nothing in the law can be considered insignificant and that - as the Lord and author of the Law, as God's Word made flesh (and that's capital “W” Word - the Logos) - he will define what is or is not significant.
[00:15:27] And what is the criterion for that determination?
[00:15:31] Not only that the law should be accomplished, but even more than that, Jesus says…
“Whoever then relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but he who does them and teaches them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus means this is no longer an intellectual debate… this is no longer simply about the opinion of what is or is not important. Jesus says that a person's actions will impact his or her experience of eternity!
[00:16:18] “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
[00:16:30] Scribes were scholars of the law, and the Pharisees were a lay movement that stressed the importance of strict observance of the law.
[00:16:40] However, not all scribes and Pharisees lived what they taught. Jesus is saying that people have to be better than the scribes and the Pharisees… that exterior conformity is not good enough! That we must allow our hearts to be transformed, because only then will our actions be sincere and authentic… only then will our righteousness be sufficient for us to enter the kingdom.
[00:17:20] And so far, Jesus has been speaking in generalities, now he becomes specific.
[00:17:30] “You have heard that it was said to the men of old,”
[00:17:33] The NAB translates that a bit differently - it says “to your ancestors”
“You shall not kill;”
[00:17:41] That's from Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
[00:17:46] “and whoever kills shall be liable to judgment.”
That's in Leviticus 24… so, Jesus has just restated the law as his audience would have understood it.
“But I say to you”
With those words, Jesus now begins to redefine the law… as the new Moses, the new lawgiver, Jesus is saying there is yet a deeper meaning here.
[00:18:23] And that meaning is…
“that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment:”
Jesus doesn't say we can't be sad or disappointed, just that we shouldn't be angry. Personally, I find myself struggling with that every day in this crazy world… Jesus then takes that teaching even further!
[00:18:51] “whoever insults his brother shall be liable to the council,”
By the council, Jesus means the Sanhedrin. And the NAB actually translates it that way. But what he really means is the ruling council of elders in Israel.
“and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be liable to the hell of fire.”
[00:19:17] The NAB translates that as “fiery Gehenna” - regardless of how it's translated, Jesus is pronouncing that the punishment will escalate. And Jesus then offers some very specific examples…
[00:19:34] “[I]f you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.”
[00:19:51] That was a situation that would have been quite familiar to Jesus’ disciples. But for those of us who don't grasp it right away, let's break it down. By “offering your gift at the altar” - Jesus means someone who is going to the temple to offer any one of a number of different sacrificial offerings outlined in Jewish law. And when Jesus says “your brother” he doesn't mean only a familial relationship - that term can mean any Jew. The important issue here is reconciliation.
[00:20:29] And Jesus is really saying that liturgical sacrifices, temple sacrifices, can't repair broken relationships - only hard work and personal effort can do that!
[00:20:45] Hopefully, Catholic Christians will see in this the Sign of Peace that we exchange with those around us during the celebration of the Mass. And yes, it is a symbolic ritual, but it is also a reminder of an interior reality!
[00:21:07] It is, in essence, the last chance for us to decide whether or not we are each in the proper state to receive Holy Communion at that time.
[00:21:21] If we are holding on to some sin that separates us from God, or if we are aware of something that separates us from another person, the Sign of Peace reminds us to be aware of that and to be reconciled before we partake of the Sacrament.
[00:21:42] Then Jesus offers another example…
[00:21:47] “Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.”
[00:22:07] Put in simpler terms, Jesus is saying, try not to allow any situation to escalate beyond your control. Disagreements and disputes can easily get out of hand, so don't let them - in fact, make a conscious decision to avoid escalation of any kind.
[00:22:36] To put it in terms of the Beatitudes, be a peacemaker. And Jesus isn't talking only about financial debts, because sometimes emotional debts are harder to pay. Then Jesus continues to redefine the law by choosing another statute as a starting point…
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”
[00:23:06] That is also Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
“But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
[00:23:21] Jesus is saying that it is no longer sufficient to simply avoid such sin, now we must also remove the temptation to sin… which - in essence - means that we must respect all people at all times.
[00:23:42] In our modern culture, where both men and women are objectified, respect can be a difficult commodity to obtain or to maintain.
[00:23:56] Jesus then makes two very startling statements…
“If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”
Jesus is not advocating self-mutilation - he is, however, stressing the importance of avoiding sin and rooting out temptation. The choice we make should be simple, although in reality it often is not.
“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’”
[00:24:50] That is part of the Mosaic Law, it is in Deuteronomy 24.
“But I say to you”
Jesus is again redefining the law.
“every one who divorces his wife, except on the ground of unchastity, makes her an adulteress; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
The NAB translates “except on the ground of unchastity” as “unless the marriage is unlawful” - either way, it means one of two things… either that one of the spouses was already married OR that the husband and wife were too closely related.
[00:25:32] So, Jesus is teaching that - despite divorce being permitted in the Mosaic Law, it was not part of God's original plan… it was not God's original intent in creation before mankind mucked it all up.
“Again you have heard that it was said to the men of old,”
Your ancestors.
‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.”
[00:26:03] Public oaths were recognized as a normal and acceptable part of life… judges, soldiers, and other public servants swore oaths in biblical times, just as they do today. And such public oaths were sworn on God's name. A false oath sworn by God's name carried its own punishment, according to Exodus 20. So, Jesus isn't saying that public oaths were bad… he is saying that oaths sworn privately between individuals were often bad because they were sworn primarily for some type of personal gain or advantage… those are the oaths that Jesus was denouncing.
“But I say to you,”
Jesus is making another new declaration.
“Do not swear at all,”
Meaning everything we say should be truthful and trustworthy. If every statement we made contained only truth, there would be no need to swear a false or insincere oath. Unfortunately, mankind is not particularly known for its truthfulness.
[00:27:18] Jesus then says, do not swear…
“by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.”
[00:27:40] Calling on anything other than God's name encourages people to take such oaths lightly or disregard them completely.
[00:27:51] “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from the Evil One.”
In other words, be straightforward, honest, and sincere. Any attempts to exaggerate or over promise are deceitful and evil. So, don't let the evil one - the adversary, the devil - have that type of control. Jesus words are truthful, straightforward, and sincere… he redefined what is evil and set before us a higher standard for what is good. If we are his authentic followers, shouldn't our words and actions be what he taught us they should be?
[00:28:41] Unfortunately, as fallen humans, that's not always easy… but Jesus never promised easy. He did, however, promise love… in John 13, he said to love one another as he loves us; in John 14, he promised to love those who keep his commandments, and in John 15, he said that as the Father loves him - which is deeply, unfailingly, and eternally - so he also loves us.
[00:29:18] Jesus promises us love… and tells us to love each other… in the Synoptics, he said to love our neighbors as ourselves.
[00:29:30] There should be plenty of love in the world, so why does it seem to be so difficult to find?
[00:29:41] That takes us to our First Reading, which is from Sirach 15:15-20.
“If you will, you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live. He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish. Before a man are life and death, good and evil, and whichever he chooses will be given to him. For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything. The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, and he knows every deed of man. He has not commanded any one to be ungodly, and he has not given any one permission to sin.”
Sirach is part of the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament… although it is not found in the Jewish Bible or the Protestant Old Testament, likely because of the late date of its composition. It was written by Yeshua Ben Sira in the 2nd century BC, originally in Hebrew, and later translated into Greek by his grandson.
Sirach believes unwaveringly that God alone is the source of all wisdom… and in fact, this book opens with the words: “All wisdom comes from the Lord.” That is the foundation upon which he bases everything else he writes. So, let's hear what Sirach has to say…
“If you will, you can keep the commandments, they will save you;”
[00:31:29] Sirach is saying that obeying God's law - keeping God's commandments - is our choice… he says: “if you will” meaning if we choose to do so. God will not force us to obey him; it is something we must choose to do. And if we do choose to obey God's law, if we do choose to keep his commandments, then we will be saved. Not by our own efforts, we don't earn our salvation - that's actually another heresy called Pelagianism - but when we cooperate with God and choose to obey God's commandments, Sirach says, we will be saved. Those words, however, imply that the opposite is also possible. Meaning that we can reject God, we can refuse to cooperate with his will for us, we can disobey his commandments, we can sin… that too is up to us… that too is our choice - as is the result of unrepented sin, which would be eternal separation from God.
[00:32:47] Sirach then offers another choice…
“if you trust in God, you too shall live.”
[00:32:54] All too often, we see God's law as being restrictive, stifling, or narrow. But in actuality, it really isn't. God's law stops us from making choices that are evil in the first place.
[00:33:11] That's not restrictive, that's protective!
[00:33:17] For instance, God's law tells us not to kill each other, which then opens up a lot of other choices that we can make… we can love each other, we can respect each other, we can care for each other, we can protect each other… we can also dislike each other, we can disagree with each other, we can ignore each other. But the one thing we can't do is kill each other.
“He has placed before you fire and water: stretch out your hand for whichever you wish.”
[00:33:52] Fire symbolizes destruction, water symbolizes healing, growth, and life. Sirach says the choice is right in front of you… so choose which path you prefer.
[00:34:06] “Before a man are life and death, good and evil, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.”
[00:34:15] Sirach is saying that goodness and life go together, just as evil and death go together. He is echoing what is written elsewhere in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 30, Moses says: “I set before you this day life and death, a blessing and a curse, therefore choose life” and in Joshua 24, Joshua himself says: “choose this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
[00:34:46] So this is not any sort of earth shatteringly new declaration. And then Sirach says…
“For great is the wisdom of the Lord; he is mighty in power and sees everything.”
[00:35:01] God sees both the good we do and the evil we choose.
[00:35:08] “The eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, and he knows every deed of man.”
[00:35:14] That's actually a paraphrase of Psalm 34. The original text is: “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.” Again, this is Sirach saying that God always watches over us… God wants only good for us and because he wants our good, he wants us to always make the right choice.
[00:35:37] And God never demands the impossible from us… if he asks anything of us, he also gives us the ability and the strength to achieve what he has asked.
[00:35:53] “He has not commanded any one to be ungodly,”
Meaning that sin didn't originate with God.
“and he has not given any one permission to sin.”
Meaning that sin was not part of God's law. And while this passage stands on its own and is well paired with our Gospel, we are should also understand it in context.
[00:36:20] Earlier in chapter 15, Sirach warns sinners not to say things like: “because of the Lord I left the right way” or the Lord “led me astray” - in other words, we shouldn't blame God for our own bad choices. Instead, Sirach declares that the Lord “created man in the beginning and left him in the power of his own inclination” - meaning that we have free will and are therefore responsible for our own choices. In fact, those very words immediately precede the beginning of this passage.
[00:37:04] Many years ago, I taught 4th grade Religious Education at my home parish, and part of the curriculum for that grade level is the Ten Commandments.
[00:37:11] Trying to teach kids that age about free will, personal choice, sin, and punishment is a challenge - at best.
[00:37:22] But one particular question has always stuck with me… a student asked: why doesn't God just make us love him? Wouldn't that be easier?
[00:37:33] The answer, of course, is yes, absolutely, that would be much easier.
[00:37:38] But love commanded is not love, it's slavery. God didn't create us to be his slaves. God created mankind for no other reason than to share his love, his wisdom, his goodness, and his very being with us.
[00:38:01] In the 2nd century, Irenaeus said: the glory of God is man fully alive.
[00:38:09] But all too often, we turn our backs on what God wants to give us, on what God wants us to be, on the love and goodness he wants to share with us.
[00:38:23] Without that goodness, that love, it's impossible to love others as we should.
[00:38:29] Perhaps we need to be more open to the love God wants to share with us so that we have love to share with others.
[00:38:40] That takes us to our Responsorial Psalm, which is Psalm 119, and the refrain is:
“Blessed are those who walk in the law of the Lord!”
[00:38:50] And here are the verses:
“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the LORD! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart.”
“You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. O that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!”
“Deal bountifully with your servant, that I may live and observe your word. Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”
Teach me, O LORD, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart.”
[00:39:36] This Psalm is a Wisdom Psalm that celebrates God's law - and at 176 verses, it is the longest Psalm in the Psalter. The original Hebrew has an acrostic structure that we cannot see or appreciate in English. In Hebrew, the Psalm is divided into 22 sections, each being 8 lines long; and each of the 22 sections begins with the successive letter of the Hebrew Alphabet - that's where the acrostic structure comes into play. In this passage, this very short version of the longest Psalm in the Bible, the Psalmist uses different terms, in each of the four stanzas, to describe God's law - the divine decrees that God has revealed to his people. Those terms are: testimonies, precepts, word, and statutes. Regardless of how the Psalmist describes God's law, he repeatedly emphasizes the importance of obedience to God's law. Hopefully that makes sense as to why this Psalm was paired with our reading from Sirach and with our Gospel.
[00:41:00] That takes us to our Second Reading, which is again from 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10.
[00:41:08] “[Brothers and sisters:] Among the mature we impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written, ‘No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.’ [This] God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
[00:42:07] This is the fifth and final passage from 1 Corinthians that we will hear in this section of Ordinary Time… and that alerts us to a coming change in season… Lent begins next week!
[00:42:24] This passage follows immediately after last week's passage, which ended, as you may recall, with Paul saying that faith should rest “not on human wisdom but on the power of God.” Let's hear what Paul has to say as he continues to build on that theme this week…
[00:42:43] “[Brothers and sisters:] Among the mature we impart wisdom,”
By mature, Paul isn't simply talking about those who have chronologically reached adulthood - he is referring to those who have attained spiritual maturity as opposed to those who have not.
[00:43:05] He goes on to say that such spiritual wisdom…
“is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.”
[00:43:19] Paul is saying that the pursuit of human wisdom alone often leads to spiritual ignorance, not spiritual insight.
[00:43:31] “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God,”
By we, Paul means himself and his companions; that's easy enough to understand.
[00:43:43] After that, however, Paul's words can easily be misinterpreted. He is not suggesting any type of Gnosticism - which was yet another early heresy! And really, I shouldn't say EARLY heresy because it is, unfortunately, still around.
[00:44:06] Gnosticism was - and is - sort of like a hydra… it had a lot of heads and was difficult to defeat.
[00:44:15] One of the most prevalent Gnostic sects maintains that a selected few individuals possessed a type of secret or hidden knowledge that was only available to - or even comprehensible by - an elite and exclusive group of individuals. That is not what Paul means!
[00:44:42] Paul is talking about a mystery… in fact, the NAB translates “secret” as “mysterious.”
[00:44:53] My favorite definition of mystery comes from Frank Sheed (attorney, author, and theologian), who wrote that mystery “does not mean a truth we cannot know anything about, but a truth we cannot know everything about.”
[00:45:12] And when Paul says “secret and hidden wisdom” he is referring to God's plan for the salvation of mankind, which was achieved through the sacrifice of the Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
“which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.”
[00:45:34] Paul means that this wisdom - God's plan for salvation - was recorded and can be found in the Jewish Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament. I quoted Saint Augustine earlier on the importance of both the Old and New Testaments, but I just heard a wonderful new take on that from Scott Hahn, who appeared at my home parish last month to present an award from the Saint Paul Center for Biblical Theology to our pastor, Monsignor Michael Heintz. Scott said, essentially, that if you think you know the New Testament, but you don't know the Old Testament… then you don't know the New Testament.
[00:46:23] Again, all of Sacred Scripture is inspired by God and we can't afford to turn our backs on any of the wisdom it contains… we ignore Scripture at our own peril.
[00:46:39] “None of the rulers of this age understood this;”
[00:46:43] What Paul is talking about are the Roman occupiers and the Jewish religious authorities.
[00:46:51] “for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”
[00:46:57] And yet that is exactly what the Jewish and Roman authorities did… in in their ignorance of God's wisdom, their actions furthered God's plan.
[00:47:11] Then Paul quotes Isaiah…
“[A]s it is written, ‘No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.’”
[00:47:29] That's actually not a direct quote - it's paraphrased from Isaiah 64. But Isaiah's words are one of the most poetic descriptions in the Old Testament of God's abundant mercy.
[00:47:47] We see in those words a promise of the kingdom of heaven.
[00:47:52] “[This] God has revealed to us through the Spirit.”
[00:47:57] The Holy Spirit is how God continues to guide and enlighten the faithful. The very same Holy Spirit that Jesus promised in John 14 would be with the disciples forever.
[00:48:15] “For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.”
[00:48:22] The Holy Spirit is uniquely qualified to search the depths of God because the Spirit is the depth, the essence, the love of God.
[00:48:36] And if the Spirit is capable of searching the depths of God, then we're open books by comparison!
[00:48:44] And that is precisely what Paul means when he says “the Spirit searches everything” - that absolutely nothing can be hidden from the Spirit… not our hearts, not our minds, not our intentions… nothing.
[00:49:04] But because the Spirit is also love, the Spirit does not condemn as it searches… the Spirit just loves… all of us!
[00:49:19] However, when we choose to allow hate to grow within us rather than love, we diminish ourselves and others. When we choose to disobey God's law, it becomes ever so much easier to disregard man's law.
[00:49:43] A song originally from the 1960s said: “What the world needs now is love, not just for some but for everyone.”
[00:49:56] So, just as we are an open book to the Spirit, we need to be an empty vessel for God's love and allow it to fill us so completely that we overflow that love on everyone and everything around us… not just our family and friends, but also those we see differently, as strangers.
[00:50:27] After all, isn't a stranger just a friend we haven't met yet?
And remember, Lent begins next week. So, perhaps we can all fast from some of our negativity since that would certainly benefit everyone and even become a habit we can all lovingly maintain!
[00:50:55] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for spending this time with me and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain, and may he hold you safe and secure in the palm of his hand.
From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with the permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request.
Thank you for listening, may you have a most fruitful and beneficial Lent, and may God bless you abundantly.
