antithesis

Our hearts, thoughts, words, and deeds can dehumanize and depersonalize or provide healing and give life.

As was presented yesterday, Jesus made it clear that he did not come to abolish the law or the prophets, but he came to fulfill them. In his Sermon on the Mount as recorded by Matthew, Jesus offered practical ways in which we can find fulfillment and happiness by properly ordering our lives by following his way. In today’s account, he introduces the first of six antitheses. With these apparent contrasting statements, beginning with, “You have heard that it was said” followed by, “But I say to you”, Jesus provided for his disciples the way to avoid the trap that some of the religious leaders of his time fell into: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven” (Mt 5:20).

The scribes and Pharisees that Jesus pointed out were those who believed that they were following the letter of the law and/or commanding that others do so, but their hearts were not changed. They may have been adhering to the external provisions, but there was no transformation, their hearts were hardened, they were focused more on their own access to honor and power. They were also imposing strict adherence to the law without providing the support or means for others to achieve what the law imposed. The law became more important than the dignity or value of the person. Jesus recognized the law but also realized that it was in place to help to provide guidance and discipline so one could better resist the temptations of our fallen nature. The law was to be a foundation to be built upon, not the end goal in and of itself.

This and the five antithesis to follow, outlines how: “Jesus calls his disciples to a higher standard than that of the scribes and Pharisees and he brings out the true meaning of the law. External conformity to the law is not enough. The law must be interiorized so that it penetrates one’s heart and leads one to live according to God’s ultimate intentions” (Mitch and Sri, 96).

Just as children need clear boundaries and structures in place to provide a clear path toward healthy development, this is also true for those of us growing and maturing spiritually. We need to learn to crawl, to build strength and balance before we can take those first wobbly steps. With continued support, we are then able to walk and soon run. Jesus is not only providing the means to go through each of these stages in our faith life, figuratively teaching each of his disciples and us today to not only crawl, walk, and run but to also be able to fly as we seek to reach the heights that Jesus is willing to raise us to!

The Beatitudes and six antitheses are challenging when we take the time to read and ponder them because each one of them goes counter to much of the way the structure of our fallen world has been governed for centuries. If we are to catch the fire that Jesus has come to set, we need not only to read, pray, meditate, and contemplate upon on the teachings of the Sermon on the Mount that we are working through, we need to also see their relevance and practicality to our time and place today, not dismiss them but begin to put them into practice. As Christians, our faith ought not to be shaped and informed by our culture, but we are to be shaped and conformed by the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, so to shape and inform our culture.

Today we start with the first antithesis: “You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment, and whoever says to his brother, Raqa, will be answerable to the Sanhedrin, and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna (Mt 5:21-22). The seeds of anger begin to sprout in our mind from our knee jerk reactions to a perceived or actual threat, from our hearts hardened by prejudgments, prejudices, and/or a reflection of our level of spiritual immaturity.

Jesus addresses the known provision against murder. He then builds a hedge around the Torah. Building a hedge is a common practice in which if one does not want to break the law, another law is imposed so as to protect one from even getting close to breaking the first. If we can resist the temptation to react and instead step back for a moment, take some deep breaths, pray, and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will be less likely to criticize, judge, demean or dehumanize another, and then there is much less chance for our anger to grow into wrath, that left unbridled could lead to murdering someone.

Jesus is also saying that our words matter, that they have the power to destroy or to create. Calling someone Raqa, Aramaic for a blockhead or idiot, and then calling someone a fool, would “be liable to fiery Gehenna” (Mt 5:22). How much more egregious are we today? How polarized we have become inside and outside of the Church because of the level of demeaning words, tone, and language that is spoken, condoned, and justified? This has a ripple effect that poisons our children and each of us. We wonder why we are more in a state of anxiety and stress where we see our own leaders no longer speaking with respect but in dehumanizing ways. We can then fall into the same pattern which poisons our family, relationships, politics, and it has even poisoned the Church with growing divisive rhetoric, overt expressions of prejudice, and depersonalization.

Instead of settling for two-dimensional caricatures of one another, we can go deeper when we are willing to spend time with and get to know each other. Jesus challenges us to slow down and see the person before us with dignity and respect. When we resist reacting, giving in to our biases, and prejudgments, and instead recognize the value and dignity of each person, we will have a better chance of building relationships and saying only the good things that people need to hear. We will also be more apt to reform policies and structures that respect the dignity of each person in the womb, after birth, and at each stage and condition of life until natural death.

May we all take some time today to reflect on Jesus’ teaching about how we think, speak to and about, as well as act toward one another. May we examine our consciences and seek forgiveness for those times we have thought, condoned, or justified thoughts, words, and/or actions that have been belittling, dehumanizing, and demeaning directly or while with others. In this way, we can ask God to heal our hearts. “[O]nly peaceful hearts can build a world of peace… The heart is the source of peace: there we must learn to meet rather than clash with each other, to trust and not mistrust, to listen and understand instead of closing ourselves off to others” (Pope Leo XIV, xiv). 

Jesus, please heal us and infuse us with your justice, love, and mercy so that we will be inspired to live out your teachings daily. Help us to encounter each other with mutual respect and understanding as our brothers and sisters, no matter our race, ethnicity, creed, and/or gender, and to commit to building a culture of life and dignity for all, not in some abstract utopian way, but in the concrete moments, one person, one encounter, and one thought, word, and action at a time.

——————————————————————–

Photo: Making time to breathe, receive, rest, and abide in God’s love will help us to better discern our thoughts, words, and actions and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts and minds.

Mitch, Curtis. The Gospel of Matthew. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2010.

Leo XIV, Pope. Peace Be With You!: My Words to the Church and to the World. Dublin, Ireland: Harper On, 2026.

Link for the Mass readings for Thursday, June 11, 2026

“You have heard what I said… But I say to you…”

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17). Jesus then went on to teach what he meant by that statement by following up with his six antitheses. Four of which are covered in today’s reading.

Upon first reading, Jesus may appear to be opposing, this is why these statements are labeled antitheses, the teachings passed down generation after generation from Moses. Jesus is doing no such thing. He is digging deeper to expose the root of each condition. As he himself said, he has not come to abolish the law and the prophets, the Hebrew sacred scrolls, he has come to fulfill them and give them deeper context and meaning.

When Jesus recounts Moses’ prohibition against killing, he follows up by stating that we are not to give in to the temptation of anger or lashing out with derogatory words. By being more intentional with our words and less reactive, we have a better chance of making more sound and rational statements. When we are more conscious of our thoughts and think them through before letting them lose, we are more apt to respect the dignity of the person we are speaking with as well as ourselves. We are also less likely to unleash our anger or lash out with harsh words. Doing both, will help us not to escalate to physical violence. Something we are very much in need of in our time.

Jesus then addressed the prohibition against committing adultery. Not only are we not to have sexual relations with someone else’s spouse, but we are also to resist the temptation of thinking about anyone in any lustful way. Again, Jesus is lifting up the dignity of the person. People are not to be objectified and lessened to mere carnal objects of satisfaction through our actions or our thoughts.

Now in both cases above, Jesus is not saying the we are robots. We will get angry, we will experience attractions, neither which are bad nor what Jesus is asking us to resist. With each emotion, we are to experience them. They are not to have free reign and to be disordered. Instead as we experience each, we bring them to Jesus with a prayerful pause or period so to properly order them to the will of his Father. Anger properly channeled can lead to healthy fraternal correction and attraction can lead to a chaste and blessed friendship.

Such a friendship can then blossom into marriage. Jesus, upholds the dignity and sacredness of marriage, recognizing that this is to be a covenantal relationship. There were some prescriptions for dismissing a wife in ancient Israel considered to be valid just because the wife had cooked a bad meal. Jesus recognized that the reality of a bill of divorce, especially for the women in his time, placed them in a very precarious position economically as well as socially. Not to mention the toll that the rupture of the relationship could cause. Women, without any means to support themselves, would seek to remarry or sought prostitution. Often their families would not take them in to care for them.

This is why Jesus stated that “whoever divorces his wife – unless the marriage is unlawful – causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (Matthew 5:32). A bill of divorce in this time is not equivalent to the civil divorce of our time. The couple was still considered married. Moses made an allowance for a bill of divorce, because of the hardness of men’s hearts and to protect women from abuse. In the most egregious of cases, men would kill their wives to marry another.

Jesus is holding up the dignity and sacredness of marriage which is a sacrificial gift of love between husband and wife, with the openness to bring forth life into the world. The Church continues to follow Jesus’ teaching today, considering marriage, even in the event of a civil divorce as valid until proved differently. Thus a declaration of nullity granted is not considered Catholic divorce, nor if one is issued does the ruling consider the children of the marriage illegitimate. God brings about a greater good, even from marriages that he did not bring together. The good in this circumstance can be the children.

One more antithesis presented in today’s account was the value of giving our word. What we say reveals something about our character. We are to resist saying what is expedient in the moment, as well as swearing false oaths to justify false claims. Instead, Jesus commands us to be honest and truthful in each situation such that our “‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and [our] ‘No’ mean ‘No'” (Mt 5:37). If we are telling the truth, there is no need to make an oath. We speak the truth and stand on the truth.

In each of the four antitheses that we read about today, resisting not only murder but also anger and unleashing dehumanizing words, not only committing adultery but also remaining chaste in mind and heart, being faithful in marriage which is a unbreakable covenant, and being true to our word, Jesus calls his disciples to a higher standard. This is just as true for us today.

The light of Jesus reveals to us the darkness of our survival and fight or flight instincts. By slowing down, stepping out of the constant noise and business, we can resist the disordered affections and baser temptations of our fallen nature. This begins in our thoughts. For if we choose to be more aware of and intentional in engaging with our interior lives, our thoughts and emotions, begin to breathe into and experience them instead of deny or not pay attention to them, we will become less reactive and impulsive. We then stand a much better chance of thinking and speaking about and acting better toward one another.

Unfortunately, the effects when we don’t can be devastating, dehumanizing, and isolating. We can see results of not following God’s laws and its destabilizing effects all too often in our culture and society. Lowering the bar of these foundational principles is not the answer. We need not separate ourselves from the commands of Jesus, but yolk ourselves to him, and then we can heal and move closer to putting into practice his teachings. The sprouts of our words and actions spring forth from the seeds of our thoughts, for good or for ill.

Practicing the teachings of Jesus begins by acknowledging the value and relevance of them. We need to resolve with a deeper commitment and firmer intent to be more careful in what we feed our thoughts, words, and actions with, while at the same time understanding that on our own we will fall short. God is God and we are not. We need the support of the Holy Spirit as well as the support and accountability of others. Aligned with Jesus, trusted family and friends, we too can fulfill the law and the prophets, by fulfilling the way of love Jesus calls us to aspire to, and will become more human in the process.

Photo: Jesus can make the antithesis statements, “You have heard that it was said” relating to the Hebrew Scriptures, and then, “But I say to you…”, expanding the teaching of the law and the prophets by his own authority because he is the Son of God come to save us.

Link for the Mass readings for Sunday, February 15, 2026