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Follow the Rules

When I was a boy, my brother being four years older, he and I and our parents heard a reading at Mass that included the word raqa.

Since we had plenty of laughter within us, and since the reading told us one must not say raqa to his brother (since it meant “thou fool”) obviously the minute we left church we began to say raqa to each other. With impunity and humor, since we were brothers in the strict sense of the word. It did not last, of course.

This unusual word, raqa, is used in today’s Gospel (or at least in the “long version” of the Gospel (and it is long!).

I wonder if that is not the way a person or a people grows up. I mean the progression from an uncomplicated, grinning approach to the commandments, to a more nuanced one, and, if they can hang into true maturity, to an experience of the inside of the commandments.

That progression is one way of looking at the readings for this Sunday.

In the First Reading, the writer speaks in very plain terms, as a father might speak to a son or daughter.

“If you choose,
you can keep the commandments—
they will save you.
If you trust in God,
you too shall live.”

These words are an echo of the last of the five great opening books in the Jewish testament:

I have set before you life and death,
blessing and curse.
Choose life,
that you and your descendants may live,
by loving the LORD, your God,
heeding his voice,
and holding fast to him. (Deut 30: 19-20)

This is not complicated, not too mysterious and remote for people. Maybe even we boys would have understood. We would have recognized “life and death, good and evil.”

According to Paul, the commandments became “a wisdom to those who are mature, ... God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages ... ” (Second Reading). Eons later, Jesus came along.

He had grown up. One by one, he took the various laws, in all their externality, and drew out their inside roots. One injunction had been against killing. The inside of that law is: do not ever act out of anger at your brother or sister. Not even the word raqa now should be spoken.

Then, you shall not commit adultery. The inside of that law is, be pure enough to not even look lustfully at another person besides your mate. And divorce: the interior law is to stay faithful and loving within your marriage relationship.

Finally, the matter of oaths. We could talk of these for pages, but here we just realize that people today use warrants, such as, “ ... in the name of God, ” or “OMG,” (which stands for O, my GOD!), or “By God ... ” Jesus talks of these simply: you are trying to make up for your weakness by putting almighty power behind your words. Just say yes or no, and mean it.

Be real.

Why does Jesus dig so deep? Because “the Spirit scrutinizes everything, even the depths of God” (Second Reading)! The inside of the law is written in Jesus’ heart. As you and I grow up, let it be written in us too.

John Foley, SJ

Father Foley can be reached at:
Fr. John Foley, SJ


Fr. John Foley, SJ, is a composer and scholar at Saint Louis University.


Art by Martin Erspamer, OSB
from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C). This art may be reproduced only by parishes who purchase the collection in book or CD-ROM form. For more information go http://www.ltp.org