The Gospel returns us to the mountain of Jesus’ discourse according to Saint Matthew. There, Christ does not abolish the Law, but reveals its heart: a justice that is no longer lived as an external norm, but as an interior fire. In this commentary on the Sunday Gospel, Friar Luciano Audisio leads us to the core of Jesus’ teaching: the transformation of the heart, where violence, possession, and the truth of our faith are decided.
On the Mountain: Words That Transcend Time
This Sunday’s Gospel places us once again on the mountain, at the heart of Jesus’ great discourse according to Saint Matthew. From the heights, Jesus contemplates the crowd, but his word is directed in a particular way to those who are closest: the disciples, those who have already taken the first step to follow him. They are men and women shaken by a new experience, who have begun to let themselves be transformed by his way of life. However, this word does not remain enclosed within a small group. With the gaze of the Creator, Jesus also sees the weary multitudes of all times and pronounces words that have the power of a new creation, words destined to pass through the disciples—with all their fragility—to reach the entire world.
When we hear Jesus say that our justice must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, it is easy for bewilderment to arise. They fasted, gave alms, and observed the Law with rigor. How could we go further? Jesus is not disqualifying the Old Testament or saying that the Law was wrong. On the contrary, he takes its deepest essence and brings it to light. It is the same God who speaks in both Testaments, not a God who changes, but a God whose most intimate truth is fully revealed in Jesus.
What Jesus does is show us the heart of the Law and, even more, invite us to participate in that heart. What could previously be lived as an external precept now becomes an interior fire. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s trust in humanity: God believes so much in his creature that he becomes man. And that incarnation does not end with Jesus, but seeks to continue in us, in our concrete lives transformed by his love.
Jesus Trusts Us: The Interior Fire of the Law
Perhaps we respond with sincerity that we are not capable of loving like this. Our daily life seems to confirm it. But Jesus, by saying these demanding words, does not first point out our limitations, but rather reveals his trust in us.
In the Gospel we see it time and again: when he forgives, when he heals, when he says to the sinful woman “sin no more” or to the paralytic “rise and walk,” Jesus acts believing in the real possibility of a new life. We think that we are the ones who have faith in Him, but there is something even more disconcerting: He has faith in us. His words create what they say, like a fire that ignites other fires.
From there, the radical nature of his teachings is understood. When Jesus deepens the “thou shalt not kill,” he takes us to the terrain of the heart. He confronts us with our tendency to “eliminate” the other: when they bother us, when they are a threat to us, when they awaken envy in us. Many times we kill with the heart before we do so with our hands. Jesus calls us to free ourselves from the fear of the other, because that fear is the root of all violence.
Then he goes beyond “thou shalt not commit adultery” and reveals to us another way of nullifying our neighbor: possession. When we cannot stand the alterity of the other, we try to dominate, manipulate, or use them. It is not just an external moral issue, but a profound lack of freedom and true love. Jesus teaches us a love that does not subdue, but respects and liberates.
Finally, he warns us against the instrumentalization of religion. The command “do not swear” is a call not to use God to build our own power. Jesus invites us to a sober, humble, and transparent faith, where word and life coincide. A faith without double standards.
A Possible Justice: Living According to Who We Already Are
All of this is sustained by a fundamental conviction: Jesus believes that we are capable of loving because we were created for it. We have not been made for destruction or fear, but to be a reflection of the glory of God.
From the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, we affirm that the human being is called to be the splendor of divinity, a living image of his light. Therefore, the demand of the Gospel is not an impossible burden, but a call to live according to what we already are in our deepest selves.
May this word, demanding and luminous, find us open. May we let Jesus trust in us more than we dare to trust ourselves. And may his justice—which is love—gradually take flesh in our lives.
