June 14, 2014
Saturday, 10th Week in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 1Kgs 19:19-21
Gospel: Mt 5:33-37Jesus said to his disciples, “You have also heard that people were told in the past: Do not break your oath; an oath sworn to the Lord must be kept. But I tell you this: do not take oaths. Do not swear by the heavens, for they are God’s throne, nor by the earth, because it is his footstool, nor by Jerusalem because it is the city of the great king. Do not even swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. Say yes when you mean yes and say no when you mean no. Anything else you say comes from the devil.”
D@iGITAL-EXPERIENCE
(Daily Gospel in the Assimilated Life Experience)
In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “You have also heard that people were told in the past: Do not break your oath; an oath sworn to the Lord must be kept. But I tell you this: do not take oaths.” Jesus’ revision is not to be taken literally. In modern society it is hard to do away with oaths especially in legal transactions. This should rather be understood in the light of Jesus’ call to deeper spirituality.
Swearing is like a pair of crutches that supports humanity’s limping adherence to truth – limping because in the rare cases that we embrace the truth we embrace only half of it. We love to tell half truths. The Lord requires all his followers to form the habit of saying yes when they mean yes and no when they mean no so that they may win the reputation of being ambassadors of truth. An ambassador of truth need not be put under oath.
‘Yes’ is a simple three-letter word but it can save the world when written by the stylus of truth. It did when the Blessed Virgin Mary said “yes” to the Angel at the Annunciation. The Angel took Mary’s “Yes” without requiring her to swear notwithstanding how crucial her reply was to the plan of salvation. Because Mary had the habit for truth, the angel saw genuineness shining in her reply.
Like Mary let us form the habit of truthfulness till truth becomes our identity. Steven Covey wrote: “sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap destiny”. When we sow nothing in our minds but the truth, what ripens into action is truth itself.
Jesus has in effect enlarged the law prohibiting the breaking of an oath by calling for an establishment of a social order that would warrant the repeal of the law on making oaths. This social order will rise when truth will become part of everyone’s identity. Is this asking too much from us? In light of his calling towards deeper spirituality this is reasonable enough.—Rev. Fr. Dan Domingo P. delos Angeles, Jr., DM. Email: [email protected]. Website: www.frdan.org.
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