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It's (also) the Thought that Counts

This Sunday we hear a lot about the law. The first reading from Ecclesiasticus, the responsorial Psalm, and the very first line of the Gospel (unless you hear the shorter version) all speak to us about the law of God. 

Jesus tells the disciples that the law is lasting. The psalmist says that the law is a blessing on those who follow it. And Ben Sirach, the author of Ecclesiasticus, say that it is the subject of free will. 

On the surface, that last one seems a bit loose compared to the other two. If you wish, you can keep the commandments God has set before you, Sirach says. But the sting is in the tale. You can choose fire or water, you can choose life or death, but what you choose you will receive in full. Freedom of choice is not freedom from consequences. 

So it seems that the primacy of the law has been established. At least that’s what the Pharisees that come up in the next lines of the Gospel believed. As long as I do (or don’t do) according to the law, I’m ok. And the more scrupulously I obey the letter of the law, and ensure that others do too, the closer I will be to God, the author of the law. 

But God is so much more than the author of the law. God is the creator of the human heart. And it is this that Jesus focuses on as he challenges the disciples to look more deeply at the law. 

You may not have committed adultery, or taken a life, He says, but if you have desired another’s spouse or wished harm on another person in your heart, you have nonetheless still sinned, in the depths of your heart. 

In other words, whilst we are still called to do good works to build up the kingdom of God, when it comes to our own relationship with God and the world, it’s also the thought that counts. 



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