There are two ways to hear today’s Gospel.

One way is to hear it as an impossible burden.
The other way is to hear it as an invitation to become whole.

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

Jesus is not relaxing the commandments.
He is revealing what they were always aiming at.

The Law was never meant to produce rule-keepers.
It was meant to form hearts.

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

But He says:

“Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.”

“You shall not commit adultery.”

But He says:

“Everyone who looks with lustful intent has already committed adultery in his heart.”

Murder begins long before the act — in anger cherished.
Adultery begins long before betrayal — in desire entertained.

No house burns down in a moment.
It begins with a spark left untended.
Anger and lust are sparks.
Christ warns us before the house is on fire.

St Thomas teaches that sin is not merely an action. It is a disorder in the will — a love turned away from its proper end.

Jesus is bringing that disorder into the light.

And that is why Sirach speaks so plainly:

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

God does not command the impossible.
He gives grace for what He commands.

But He also gives freedom.

We are not determined by instinct.
We are not absolved by our culture.
We are capable of choosing the good.

Freedom is not the ability to follow every impulse.
That is not freedom — that is slavery with clever marketing.

True freedom is the power to choose what leads to our true end.

A train is most free when it runs on its tracks.
Off the tracks it is not liberated — it is wrecked.
The commandments are not chains.
They are rails.

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 governed by what they refuse to govern.

Christ is revealing where freedom truly lies.

He says: “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”

Integrity is wholeness.

A divided heart cannot love well.

A compass that is slightly off may not seem dangerous at first.
But over distance it leads miles from the destination.
A heart slightly disordered will eventually distort everything.

The world says, “Follow your heart.”
Christ says, “Let your heart be purified.”

The heart is not a reliable guide if it has not been healed.
We do not follow it blindly.
We ask God to reform it.

Because we become what we love.

If you bend a young tree toward one direction long enough, it will grow that way permanently.
The will bends toward whatever it loves most.

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

And when the first love is rightly ordered, everything else falls into place.

When the top button of a shirt is fastened correctly, the rest align.
When the first love is rightly ordered, the rest follow.

And here is the hope.

Christ does not merely diagnose the heart.
He gives the Spirit.

The Christian life is not self-improvement.
It is transformation by grace.

You cannot polish a stone into a living heart.
But God can turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.

Grace does not destroy freedom.
It heals it.

When we fall into anger, grace teaches forgiveness.
When desire becomes disordered, grace restores purity.
When speech becomes careless, grace forms truthfulness.

This is not about perfection in a day.
It is about allowing God to begin His work.

Sirach says: “Before a person are life and death.”

Christ shows us where that choice is made.

Not only in public decisions,
but in hidden thoughts.

In what we dwell on.
In what we justify.
In what we permit to grow.

The Sermon on the Mount is not about dramatic gestures.
It is about interior honesty.

It is about allowing God into the places no one else sees.

And that is why it is demanding.

But it is demanding because we are made for more.

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.

You were not created to hover just above serious sin.
You were created for communion.

God is truth — so your speech must be true.
God is faithful — so your love must be faithful.
God is charity — so your heart must be ordered to love.

Christ has not come to abolish the Law.

He has come to fulfill it in you.

To write it not on stone,
but upon the heart.

And when the heart is rightly ordered,
peace follows.

When love is rightly ordered,
freedom follows.

And when God is loved above all things,
everything else finds its place.