Pre-Lent

In today’s Gospel, Jesus critices those whose “virtue goes no deeper that that of the scribes and Pharisees,” that is, whose whose faith is only skin-deep. The word “virtue” here has overtones of “justice” and “righteousness” – it refers to something you do, not simply something you believe. So Jesus gives examples of what it means to have virtue, that is, how to put faith into action. When it comes to adultery, Jesus criticizes the inner ugliness that allows us to treat others as objects which we can discard when we have finished with them. Divorce was solely a male prerogative. A man could divorce his wife for trivial reasons and so remarry – leaving the divorced woman ashamed and destitute. Jesus goes to the inner meaning of the commandment against adultery: it is never right to objectify another person, to treat people as a means to an end. And in His teaching about others, Jesus goes beyond the debate about what binds or compels us to tell the truth to say that it is our whole lives, not just our words, that need to be truthful.

In our daily lives, our faith – our virtue, justice and righteousness – is to be more than skin-deep, it is to go to the very core of our being. Faith that is authentic is faith that is lived out. And just as it is possible to increase our attractiveness by improving our social skills, so we can learn to be more virtous, just and righteous, as the first reading tells us: “If you wish, you can keep the commandments.” To think that we have only to tick the boxes of God’s commandments – avoid killing, adultery, lying, and come to Mass on Sundays – is to treat our faith in a superficial way. Christ challenges us to live life at a deeper and more authentic level. To “get into the kingdom of heaven” means allowing an inner beauty to shine through – by our willingness to forgive and to reconcile; by our commitment to justice in our dealings with others, respecting the dignity of every person we meet; and by living lives of integrity, in which we try to express outwardly – in acts of forgiveness, compassion and honesty -the faith we hold. If our faith is truly rooted in God – the God of mercy, love and truth it is God’s beauty that will shine through our lives.