Jesus’ words today are some of the most demanding in the entire Gospel.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;
I have come not to abolish, but to fulfil.”

Jesus does not relax the moral law.

He intensifies it.

He does not remove the commandments.
He drives them deeper — from behaviour into the heart.

This is the key to today’s Gospel.

The question is not:
What am I allowed to do?

The question is:
Who am I becoming?

In the first reading from Sirach,
we are told something essential:

“Before each person
are life and death,
good and evil…
what you choose
will be given to you.”

God does not force holiness.

He offers it.

Freedom is real.
Responsibility is real.

We are not puppets.

But freedom is not licence.

To choose against God
is not neutral —
it is destructive.

This prepares us
for the intensity of Jesus’ teaching.

“You have heard it said…
but I say to you…”

Jesus is not adding extra rules.
He is revealing the truth
about the heart.

Anger is not harmless.
Lust is not trivial.
Words are not weightless.

Sin does not begin in actions.

It begins in desires.

This is why Jesus speaks so directly.

He knows that a religion
focused only on behaviour
will never change the heart.

And a heart unchanged
will always find a way
to break the law.

The second reading from 1 Corinthians
helps us understand
how this is possible.

Paul speaks of God’s hidden wisdom —
a wisdom not grasped
by the powerful or the proud,
but revealed by the Spirit.

We cannot live Jesus’ teaching
by willpower alone.

We need grace.

The Sermon on the Mount
is not a moral self-help guide.

It is a call to transformation.

And transformation is God’s work in us.

But grace does not bypass freedom.

It heals and elevates it.

Sirach tells us
that God does not command anyone
to sin.

But neither does He force obedience.

He invites.

He offers life.

Jesus now shows us
what that life looks like.

Not merely external righteousness —
but integrity.

Not minimal compliance —
but love.

Reconciliation before worship.
Truthfulness before convenience.
Faithfulness before desire.

This is not about perfection.

It is about direction.

The heart is being claimed.

The Gospel today challenges
a comfortable Christianity.

One that keeps rules
while protecting resentments.

One that avoids scandal
while nurturing fantasy.

One that speaks truth
while quietly manipulating.

Jesus refuses this division.

“Let your yes be yes
and your no be no.”

Wholeness matters.

The law fulfilled
is the law interiorised.

This is why the Church
takes conscience so seriously.

Not because God is watching us nervously —
but because God desires us to be whole.

Holiness is not repression.

It is freedom.

Freedom from anger that poisons.
Freedom from desire that enslaves.
Freedom from lies that distort.

Sirach’s choice
is not theoretical.

It is daily.

Life or death.
Faithfulness or fragmentation.

The Gospel today is not meant
to discourage us.

It is meant to wake us.

To show us
that Christ did not come
to make us slightly better.

He came to make us new.

And He offers the Spirit
to do exactly that.

We do not save ourselves.

But we do decide
whether we will be changed.

This is the tension
at the heart of Christian life.

Grace and freedom.

God acts.
We respond.

Jesus fulfils the law
by giving us His own heart.

The question that remains
is whether we will let Him.

Not in theory.
But in the places
we guard most carefully.

Anger.
Desire.
Words.
Relationships.

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time
calls us to a deeper honesty.

Not to condemnation —
but to conversion.

Because God has set before us
life and death.

And in Christ,
He has shown us
the way to choose life.