June 13, 2014 Friday, 10th Week in Ordinary Time St. Anthony de Padua 1st Reading: 1Kgs 19:9a, 11-16 Gospel: Mt 5:27–32
Jesus said to his disciples, “You have heard that it was said: Do not commit adultery. But I tell you this: anyone who looks at a woman to satisfy his lust has in fact already committed adultery with her in his heart.“So, if your right eye causes you to sin, pull it out and throw it away! It is much better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell. If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away! It is better for you to lose a part of your body than to have your whole body thrown into hell.“It was also said: anyone who divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. But what I tell you is this: If a man divorces his wife except in the case of unlawful union, he causes her to commit adultery. And the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
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The readings since Thursday until Tuesday next week are part of Jesus’ discourse on some six required Christian conduct under different provisions of law which Jesus wanted to revise. Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said: Do not commit adultery. But I tell you this: anyone who looks at a woman to satisfy his lust has in fact already committed adultery with her in his heart”. Jesus’ revision of the Mosaic Law pushes adultery’s beginning far back to the moment a man looks at a woman with lust. In light of Jesus’ call towards deeper spirituality requiring greater love, the demand is reasonable. A good disciple will be selective about what goes through his eyes, aware that most cases of adultery begin with the eyes’ inordinate delights. This war we are waging with the devil is won not by stretching boundaries between good and evil but by the art of anticipation.
“An ounce of prevention is better than a thousand cure” is a valid maxim even in the spiritual realm. St. John Bosco believed that earlier steps must be taken to avoid sin. Under his Preventive System of Education, students take exception to bad companions because they want to avoid not just sin but even those leading to it. Jesus even prescribes, without being literal, the plucking off of the eyes that lead one to commit sin. Moses had prescribed proper procedure for divorce since his defiant people had been practicing divorce anyway. But Jesus disapproves such compromise and affirms the inviolability of marriage. In our fight against evil Jesus admits of no compromise.
Is this too harsh? In the light of his calling towards deeper spirituality this is reasonable enough. – Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., .
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