In the Gospel Reading Christ says that he has not come to do away with the law but to fulfill the law. In fact, no one will get into heaven unless his righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the law-observing scribes and the Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees thought that murderers and adul-terers are shut out of heaven. As Christ explains it, sins in your heart, such as hatred or lust, will shut you out of heaven just as effectively.
This is a perplexing saying, isn’t it?
What happened to salvation by faith and not by works? Isn’t the law of the old covenant re-placed by the new covenant of grace? How are we to understand Christ’s saying that he has come to fulfill the law?
And it’s also a troubling saying, worrying enough to make a person groan out loud. Isn’t the burden of guilt heavy enough without Christ’s telling people that they will be excluded from heaven unless their righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees? The burden of the Law was great enough, wasn’t it? What happened to Christ’s saying “come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest”? (Mt 11:28)
But think about heaven. Those in heaven have everlasting life. What would that life be like if Christ’s saying were false? If it were false, a person who hated his brother or lusted after some-one else’s wife could still have everlasting life in heaven.
And now think about living forever in the psychic pain of surreptitious hatred or secret lust. How could anyone with such a psyche be in heaven? Anywhere a person like that goes automat-ically ceases to be heaven. His own unrighteousness will make him miserable. He carries the absence of heaven in his unrighteous heart.
And so Christ is correct: no one will enter into heaven whose righteousness does not exceed the righteousness mandated in the law.
This is a very heavy burden indeed. What could anyone do to carry it?
The solution is to listen when Christ says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
The rest which righteousness gives comes to us only when we come to Christ.
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