It does not pat us on the back.
It searches us.

Our Lord says: “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them.”

That sentence corrects two common mistakes.

First: that the commandments no longer matter.
Second: that keeping them outwardly is enough.

Christ rejects both.

Jesus does not lower the bar.
He raises it — and then He moves it inside us.

We often ask, “What am I allowed to do?”
Jesus asks, “What is happening in your heart?”

“You have heard that it was said…
‘You shall not murder.’”

But Jesus says: “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgement.”

Again: “You shall not commit adultery.”

But He says: “Everyone who looks with lustful intent has already committed adultery In their heart.”

This is the truth.

Sin does not begin in the actions.
It begins in the heart.

We rehearse it.
We justify it.
We cradle it.

The act is only the fruit.
The root is inside.

And this is where Sirach helps us.

“If you desire, you can keep the commandments…
He has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.”

We are not puppets.
We are not victims of instinct.
We are not programmed by the culture.

God has made us capable of choosing the good.

And here is the uncomfortable truth:
we are responsible.

That truth offends modern ears.
But without responsibility, there is no dignity.

It is fashionable to blame circumstances, upbringing, stress, personality.
But the Word of God says: choose.

God has made us free.

Not free to invent good and evil.
But free to choose between them.

Freedom is not the ability to do whatever we please, to follow every impulse.

That is not freedom — that is slavery with good marketing.

Freedom is the ability to choose what is truly good.

A person ruled by anger is not free.
A person ruled by lust is not free.
A person who bends the truth is not free.

They are controlled by what they have not mastered. 

They are governed by what they refuse to govern.

Notice what Jesus does not say.

He does not say, “Keep your anger polite.”
He says: deal with it.

He does not say, “Avoid being caught.”
He says: purify your intent.

He does not say, “Make your lies believable.”
He says: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”

No manipulation.
No hedging.
Because the real issue is integrity.

We keep anger within “acceptable limits.”
We entertain desires so long as no one sees.
We justify small manipulations of truth.

And then we say, “I have not broken the commandment.”

Christ says: look again.

The Law fulfilled is the Law interiorised.

We become what we love.

If we love resentment, we become bitter.
If we love pleasure above truth, we become unstable.
If we love God above all, we become ordered.

Left to ourselves, we excuse anger.
We justify desire.
We rationalise speech.

The Spirit does something deeper.
He reorders love, if we let Him.

That is the key.

Every sin is, at root, a disorder of love.

We love something created more than we love God.

We love pleasure more than purity.

We love self-protection more than truth.

Christ fulfils the law by restoring right order.

To love God above all things —
and everything else in Him.

This is why the Church refuses to soften Christ’s words.

A doctor who names a disease is not cruel. They are honest.

Christ names the disease of the heart.

But He also provides the cure.

He does not say: “Purify yourself and then come to Me.”

He says: “Come to Me — and I will make you new.”

The Sixth Sunday of Ordinary Time forces us to ask:

Do I settle for external decency?
Or do I seek interior conversion?

Do I avoid scandal, yet harbour resentment?
Do I appear faithful, yet feed interior fantasies?
Do I speak kindly, yet manipulate quietly?

Our Lord will not allow that division.

He desires not minimal obedience —
but holiness.

Sirach says: “Before a man are life and death, and whichever he chooses will be given to him.”

Christ now shows us where that choice is truly made.

In the heart.

Every single day.

And this is not meant to discourage us.

It is meant to elevate us.

You were not created for mediocrity.

You were created for communion with God.

Christ does not expose the heart to shame us.
He exposes it to heal us.

A surgeon must cut before they can restore.

The Gospel is surgical: sharp. Precise. Necessary.
And it is merciful.

Because God wants more for us than minimal compliance.

Minimal religion produces minimal saints.

Minimal religion may keep you respectable.
It will not make you holy.

We were not baptised to be barely decent.

We were baptised to be transformed.

So today, do not leave this church thinking:
“This is too high.”

Leave thinking:
“This is what I am made for.”

Christ has not come
to lower the law.

He has come
to write it upon your heart.

You were made for holiness.
You were made for communion.

Love God above all things —
and everything else will find its place.