Homily 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time - February 15, 2026

 Today's readings can be found here.

            Today, God is asking us to choose.  The first verse in today’s readings is “if you choose, you can keep the commandments.  They will save you.  If you trust in God, you will live.”  Jesus offers us a choice as well.  It’s similar, but not quite the same.  Jesus gives us the choice to either surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees or be shut out of heaven.  The scribes and Pharisees prided themselves on keeping the commandments.  They were more concerned with keeping the letter of the law, thinking that doing so would save them.  Jesus reminds them and us that following the commandments goes deeper than external observance.  It requires we follow the law with our hearts as well as our actions.

            Jesus shows us how to keep the commandments fully by taking some well know ones and then broadening our understanding of them.  He uses four examples but I’d like to focus on the first one.  The commandment states someone who kills is liable to judgement.  However, Jesus points out that simply being angry with another makes you liable to judgment.  Our nation is so angry right now, isn’t it?  People are angry at politicians.  Politicians are angry at each other.  We’re angry at what’s going on in our cities.  We’re angry at each other and can’t agree.  It’s obvious from spending ten minutes on Facebook.

            Anger in and of itself is not necessarily a bad thing.  Being angry about a situation or an injustice may motivate us to get involved to make things better.  However, this sort of righteous anger is not what Jesus is warning us against.  Jesus refers to being angry at an individual, personally.  I’ve heard it said that anger is a surface emotion.  We get angry as an initial reaction to some deeper feeling.  Think about the times someone made you upset.  Why was it?  Speaking for myself, I usually get angry at someone because I didn’t get my way.  Or because I had some unspoken expectation that wasn’t met.  I got angry because I made that situation about me.

            Jesus is offing us a choice to fully live out this commandment.  Choose between anger or its opposite: peace.  Jesus tells us one way to achieve this peace: be reconciled.  If someone has something against us, we should drop everything and be reconciled.  That also applies if we have something against another.  We’re called to make the first move to heal the situation regardless of the circumstances.  Even if we feel justified in being angry.

The first step in the process is the sacrament of Reconciliation.  Recognizing that we have sinned and asking God for forgiveness.  Once we’ve received God’s forgiveness, we can then seek out forgiveness from the other person.  They may or may not forgive us.  But we should still ask.  The Sacrament of Reconciliation helps us to let go of our anger.  To not make things about us.  Reconciliation also helps in the next step to achieving peace.  Our first reading tells us to trust in God.  Trusting in God helps us to focus on doing God’s will, not our own.  Doing God’s will allows us to love God and our neighbor more deeply.  The more we make our lives about others instead of ourselves, the more we find peace.

            The scriptures today give us a choice between fire and water.  Pain and healing.  Anger and peace.  The righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees or the righteousness of God.  Keeping God’s commandments is more than just following the letter of the law.  We must go deeper to see the law of love contained within the commandments.  We must be reconciled with others if we become angry or have wronged them.  We must trust in God and live to do God’s will.  We must love others and not make our lives about us.  Which will we choose?