6th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2026
Sirach 15:15-20; 1Cor 2: 6-10; Matthew 5:20-37
Here’s a tramstopper of a question for you: what do you think about the fundamental option? “What is the fundamental option when it’s at home?” you may ask—or you may not. It is our basic life choice: am I for good or for evil? For God or against Him?
“Oh, that’s easy”, you may reply. “I am for God and for good. Is that all there is to it?”
Well, up to a point, but it has massive implications for the way we live.
“Oh, I know that!” you may respond. “I have to love God with all my heart and soul and mind and strength, and my neighbour as myself, then I don’t need to worry about all the rules and regulations. It’s a doddle.”
“Mmm….” I will say, with a questioning frown on my forehead. “I don’t think it’s as easy as all that. In fact, I would say that it is much harder than just keeping the rules. They can be just a tick box: ‘I haven’t killed anyone, I haven’t coveted my neighbour’s donkey’—have you, by the way?—'so Bob’s your uncle, t’job’s a good ‘un’ or whatever clincher you wish to use.” In fact, if you think clearly about love, you may decide that it is VERY demanding.
More than fifty years ago, I did my summer placement as a deacon in St. Augustine’s, Preston, a parish which, sadly, no longer exists. On the parish register, in the area which was my District for the duration, and which consisted mainly of high rise flats, were two elderly ladies who lived together. These ladies were Russian Jews. How Russian Jews came to appear on the visiting list of a Catholic parish, I have no idea, but I am glad that they did.
In the course of my visit, one of these ladies said to me: “Religion is the Lord, and religion is love, and love means sacrifice”. I thought at the time, and I have thought many times afterwards, that this is a pretty succinct expression of truth. I do not know what sacrifices these ladies had made in their service of the Lord, but I suspect that they had been considerable.
Similarly, our service of the Lord, our choice of good, will demand sacrifices, because it demands love, and love is actually far harder than simply keeping the rules. As the old song puts it “Love hurts, love scars, love wounds and marks any heart not tough or strong enough to take a lot of pain”. Perhaps it is no coincidence that this song was recorded by a group named Nazareth, as we consider the total self-sacrifice of Jesus of Nazareth.
Think of how much pain the love of another human being may involve, whether it be romantic love, or love of a parent, a child, a friend. Is there anyone here who can say that they haven’t had their heart broken at least once, if not many times? Then think of that self-sacrificing love of Jesus, and realise that we are called to reproduce that in relation to God, and to other human beings.
To seek to do God’s will in every aspect of life—how demanding, how painful, may that be? Then to put ourselves in other people’s shoes, other people’s skin—to have compassion, cum passio, suffering with, not one human being but all human beings—how much will that tear our hearts, make demands of our strength? As Oscar Wilde, that strangest of converts, wrote “He who lives more lives than one, more deaths than one must die”. Wouldn’t it be far easier just to keep the rules?
Yet if we do settle for just keeping the rules, says Jesus, we will “never enter the Kingdom of Heaven”. Oh heck! He then goes on to give some examples. It is not enough to avoid committing murder: we must avoid anger, and genuinely love each person whom we encounter. Not satisfied with staying away from adultery, we must respect every other person, not regarding them as a sex-object, or damaging our own minds and hearts with lustful thoughts. Not content with keeping our oaths and promises, we must refrain from swearing at all, from being over-emphatic, from promising what we cannot deliver.
There is much more in similar vein. What do we think now of the fundamental option, of preferring God and good? Do you still wish to undertake it? Of course you do. Can you achieve it? Yes, with the help of God, and only with that help, and for that, prayer is indispensable.
