Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5-7): The Objective of Religion and Morality
It's been 3 years since I started this blog, devoted primarily for articles that are meant to nourish the Catholic faith. As its faithful followers would have noticed, the blog has been 95% composed of articles by other people. In the event of the third anniversary of Catholic Metanarrative, I'll write down my first very own articles. The topic for these articles is a commentary on Matthew 5-7, more popularly known as the Sermon on the Mount.
May God will that I write down only those things that are meant for His Glory and for the sanctification of all men. May I write down things that are neither added nor removed from the pure body of Truth. May I write down things that God chooses to reveal for myself, a poor instrument of His, and for everyone who finds the time and compassion to read through this. If I do write something that is far from the pure body of Truth, may God correct and put me back in the right way through His Church, specifically through the Magisterium and her chosen representatives.
Note: All Scriptural passages are taken from the New American Bible (an online reference can be seen at http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM).
*~*~*~*~*
The Objective of Religion and Morality
The entire fifth chapter of Matthew presents a rough sketch on how man should view about religion, morality and also about himself, as given by Jesus Christ. But in order to understand this properly, it might be fit to start at the last verse of the chapter, when Our Lord gave us all one goal in mind: "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) This is the true objective of religion and morality -- being perfect like God. And since God's perfection is the ultimate perfection, it means that we have to be like God.
And yet, this is not as simple as we would like to think based on the brevity of the statement. In the first place, we are of the common impression that we can never be like God. Between us and God is an infinite gulf that, properly speaking, cannot be filled. And yet, Our Lord teaches this to us without ambiguity: We have to be perfect like God. How do we go about this? How do we achieve this main and sole objective?
Let us look at three angles on how we can understand and "resolve" this confusion.
1. Grace perfects nature. St Thomas Aquinas mentions this in Summa Theologica. Perfection is possible only through sanctifying grace. We need God to fill in that infinite gulf that naturally divides us from Him. Therefore, we must strive to receive sanctifying grace with the right disposition.
And the normal channels are the Sacraments. Everybody initially receives this in Baptism (some are lucky to receive it after birth) and we are strengthened in Confirmation. If we have lost this through sin, we aim to have it restored by humbly approaching Confession. We are also continually given grace through the Eucharist and this is made possible with the Holy Mass. Married life, affirmed and recognized through the Sacrament of Matrimony, can also be a vehicle of grace. Of course, God calls out specific ministers within the Church, through Holy Orders, to properly dispense grace to all of the faithful through the Sacraments. Even at the last moment of our lives, we are continually aided through the Anointing of the Sick.
Throughout our lives, from the moment we were born to the moment we are about to die, we have all the means available to "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" but this is only possible if we don't put impediments on our way to make use of those means, that is, to receive the Sacraments. Parents should not delay the Baptism of their babies. Families and immediate members of the Christian community should prepare children for Confirmation and First Communion, most especially encouraging them to go to Confession first and often afterwards. The faithful should revive and relive that age-old practice of frequent Communion, which means attending the Holy Mass daily and not only on Sundays or other holy days of obligation. The more learned and wise members of the community should help the younger ones prepare for their calling in life, either in married life or a life fully devoted for various functions in the Church.
2. Perfection means mercy. Looking at the footnotes of scholars who have studied Holy Scripture from its original languages, the term "perfect" in Matthew also means "mercy" in the context of when it was written. Similarly, a text from Luke had the same formulation as Mt 5:48: "Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful." (Lk 6:36) In this case, rather than thinking about a pure philosophical slant on perfection, we will be better off thinking on how we can be merciful like God. While perfection implies an end state, mercy implies action and a consistent disposition.
There are so many articles, books, guides, sermons, commentaries, papers, discussions out there that talk about mercy in the context of every stage in human history. This article will not attempt to "add to the literature". Everything that is available for us to know about mercy is all good. The point here is that by looking perfection in terms of mercy, we are able to dispel any notion of impossibility of being like God. Further, in the previous section on grace, we must also understand that grace is a gift from God, which is nothing more than His act of mercy on us. This means that if God has given us grace to be like Him, we should also "make this grace accessible" or to be "gracious" to everyone. There should foster a desire for apostolic zeal, thereby leading others closer to God.
3. The goal comes after the winning shot. We might forget from our discussion thus far that while the true objective of religion and morality -- indeed, the whole of our lives -- lies in our own perfection like that of God, this does not tell us how to do that. The 48th verse is the culmination of the first 47 verses. In those 47 verses lies the details of how we can achieve this goal.
The whole fifth chapter is generally subdivided into three parts: the Beatitudes (vv. 3-12), the salt and light metaphors (vv. 13-16) and the clarification of the Divine Law (vv. 17-47). These three parts will generally tell us, in a glimpse sort of way, how we can "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (v. 48).
We shall start talking about these in more detail in the next article.
May God will that I write down only those things that are meant for His Glory and for the sanctification of all men. May I write down things that are neither added nor removed from the pure body of Truth. May I write down things that God chooses to reveal for myself, a poor instrument of His, and for everyone who finds the time and compassion to read through this. If I do write something that is far from the pure body of Truth, may God correct and put me back in the right way through His Church, specifically through the Magisterium and her chosen representatives.
Note: All Scriptural passages are taken from the New American Bible (an online reference can be seen at http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/_INDEX.HTM).
*~*~*~*~*
The Objective of Religion and Morality
The entire fifth chapter of Matthew presents a rough sketch on how man should view about religion, morality and also about himself, as given by Jesus Christ. But in order to understand this properly, it might be fit to start at the last verse of the chapter, when Our Lord gave us all one goal in mind: "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Mt 5:48) This is the true objective of religion and morality -- being perfect like God. And since God's perfection is the ultimate perfection, it means that we have to be like God.
And yet, this is not as simple as we would like to think based on the brevity of the statement. In the first place, we are of the common impression that we can never be like God. Between us and God is an infinite gulf that, properly speaking, cannot be filled. And yet, Our Lord teaches this to us without ambiguity: We have to be perfect like God. How do we go about this? How do we achieve this main and sole objective?
Let us look at three angles on how we can understand and "resolve" this confusion.
1. Grace perfects nature. St Thomas Aquinas mentions this in Summa Theologica. Perfection is possible only through sanctifying grace. We need God to fill in that infinite gulf that naturally divides us from Him. Therefore, we must strive to receive sanctifying grace with the right disposition.
And the normal channels are the Sacraments. Everybody initially receives this in Baptism (some are lucky to receive it after birth) and we are strengthened in Confirmation. If we have lost this through sin, we aim to have it restored by humbly approaching Confession. We are also continually given grace through the Eucharist and this is made possible with the Holy Mass. Married life, affirmed and recognized through the Sacrament of Matrimony, can also be a vehicle of grace. Of course, God calls out specific ministers within the Church, through Holy Orders, to properly dispense grace to all of the faithful through the Sacraments. Even at the last moment of our lives, we are continually aided through the Anointing of the Sick.
Throughout our lives, from the moment we were born to the moment we are about to die, we have all the means available to "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" but this is only possible if we don't put impediments on our way to make use of those means, that is, to receive the Sacraments. Parents should not delay the Baptism of their babies. Families and immediate members of the Christian community should prepare children for Confirmation and First Communion, most especially encouraging them to go to Confession first and often afterwards. The faithful should revive and relive that age-old practice of frequent Communion, which means attending the Holy Mass daily and not only on Sundays or other holy days of obligation. The more learned and wise members of the community should help the younger ones prepare for their calling in life, either in married life or a life fully devoted for various functions in the Church.
2. Perfection means mercy. Looking at the footnotes of scholars who have studied Holy Scripture from its original languages, the term "perfect" in Matthew also means "mercy" in the context of when it was written. Similarly, a text from Luke had the same formulation as Mt 5:48: "Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful." (Lk 6:36) In this case, rather than thinking about a pure philosophical slant on perfection, we will be better off thinking on how we can be merciful like God. While perfection implies an end state, mercy implies action and a consistent disposition.
There are so many articles, books, guides, sermons, commentaries, papers, discussions out there that talk about mercy in the context of every stage in human history. This article will not attempt to "add to the literature". Everything that is available for us to know about mercy is all good. The point here is that by looking perfection in terms of mercy, we are able to dispel any notion of impossibility of being like God. Further, in the previous section on grace, we must also understand that grace is a gift from God, which is nothing more than His act of mercy on us. This means that if God has given us grace to be like Him, we should also "make this grace accessible" or to be "gracious" to everyone. There should foster a desire for apostolic zeal, thereby leading others closer to God.
3. The goal comes after the winning shot. We might forget from our discussion thus far that while the true objective of religion and morality -- indeed, the whole of our lives -- lies in our own perfection like that of God, this does not tell us how to do that. The 48th verse is the culmination of the first 47 verses. In those 47 verses lies the details of how we can achieve this goal.
The whole fifth chapter is generally subdivided into three parts: the Beatitudes (vv. 3-12), the salt and light metaphors (vv. 13-16) and the clarification of the Divine Law (vv. 17-47). These three parts will generally tell us, in a glimpse sort of way, how we can "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect" (v. 48).
We shall start talking about these in more detail in the next article.
posted by Chipi Buenafe at
7:17 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home