Thou Shalt Not Kill

After giving the Beatitudes and presenting to us our mission to be salt of the earth and light of the world, Jesus begins to give his teaching on what ‘salt’ and ‘light’ mean concretely in the moral life.  But before He does so, He prefaces His moral teaching with “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17).  Therefore, the moral precepts that He preaches in the Sermon on the Mount should not be seen in discontinuity with the Old Testament.  The Ten Commandments were specific, divine-positive promulgations of the natural law.  Our Lord’s intention in reviewing the Commandments is to clarify that mere external observance of the Law is simply not enough.  Jesus’ New Law of love is the law that must be written on each believer’s heart.

“You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, ‘You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you. . .” (Mt 5:21).  “By speaking in the first person (‘but I say to you’) Jesus shows that His authority is above that of Moses and the prophets; that is to say, he has divine authority. No mere man could claim such authority” (The Navarre Bible Commentary).  The point that our Lord is making is that murder results from uncontrolled anger and revenge.  It is inevitable in this life that we will get frustrated with one another every so often, and even that some people will hurt us — sometimes deeply hurt us.  However, when we let that anger simmer in our hearts; when we are unwilling to forgive; when we resort to nasty words and hateful insults — Jesus is telling us that we are not only murdering that person in our hearts, we are killing ourselves both spiritually and emotionally.

 Our Lord Jesus Christ instructs us that, despite countless injustices, we must have a heart of mercy, which reflects the Beatitudes of meekness and joy in the face of persecution.  A heart of mercy signifies a positive attitude towards life.  “Every human life, from the moment of conception until death, is sacred because the human person has been willed for its own sake in the image and likeness of the living and holy God” (CCC 2319; Gn 1:27).  Rather than being obsessed with the hot-button moral issues that face us today, we emphasize that all human life is sacred because it reflects the Creator Himself.  “Precisely for this reason God will severely judge every violation of the commandment ‘You shall not kill,’ the commandment which is at the basis of all life together in society” (Evangelium Vitæ, 53).

In this Sunday’s Mass, (February 16) I will carefully but directly preach our Lord’s teaching on the virtue of chastity (Mt 5:27-30).  Our Lady of Fatima said “More souls go to hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason.”  So, the sins against the Sixth and Ninth Commandments need to be properly addressed in light of our Lord’s teaching in the Sermon on the Mount.  Sunday Mass, when everyone is present, is a perfect place to do just that.