When I was still a kid, my parents would usually impose upon us house rules that we needed to follow. Still vivid in my memory are those rules like: we need to be home before 12:00 noon or 7:00 in the evening for our lunch and dinner; we need to go back home immediately after class; we should not go out from our house without the consent of either my mother or my father. Whenever we break these rules, my parents usually give us punishment.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear to his disciples that the law of the Old Testament still stands. Although people of Jesus’ time may have thought that Jesus came to replace the rules of the Old Testament, Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.

In building upon the law, Jesus’ teaching reveals the heart of God for the poor and the oppressed. Jesus shows us the values of the Kingdom of Heaven where every person is valued and every person matters to God. As a priest-in-process, the Gospel challenges me to follow the law of God, not because I am afraid to be punished but rather because I love the Lord so much. The laws of God are designed to show us how much God loves us and how we should, in turn, demonstrate this love to each other.

By: Sem. Jimwell S. Sales

Gospel: Matthew 5:17-19

Jesus said to his disciples:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away,
not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter
will pass from the law,
until all things have taken place.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments
and teaches others to do so
will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.
But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments
will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven.”