Sunday the 15th of February 2026 - The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sirach 15:15-20/ Ps 119(118)/ 1 Corinthians 2:6-10/ Matthew 5:17-37

When we go on a journey to somewhere unfamiliar, we might use a GPS. We enter the destination, the device calculates the route, and off we go. What happens if we ignore the directions? What happens when we think we know better and take a shortcut that turns out not to be a short cut after all? We end up lost, frustrated, and wasting time going in circles. God's commandments are like a GPS system for our lives. They are not restrictions meant to limit our freedom, they are directions meant to guide us safely to our ultimate destination, eternal life with God.

Today's readings challenge us to embrace the gift of free will that God has given us while recognising our need for His guidance. In the first reading, we see that God has linked freedom of will with human responsibility, and that God is neither the cause nor the occasion of sin. We have a choice to keep the commandments or not. God has placed before us fire and water, and we can stretch out our hand for whichever we choose. Life or death, blessing or curse, the choice is ours. God trusts us enough to give us real freedom. He does not force us to love Him. He does not manipulate us like puppets on strings. True love requires freedom. If God programmed us to automatically obey Him, we would not be capable of real love. We would be robots, not children of God. With this freedom comes great responsibility. Our choices have real eternal consequences. When we choose to follow God's commandments, we are choosing life. When we reject them, we are choosing death.

Paul reminds us in the second reading that God's wisdom is His plan for our salvation, His own eternal secret that no one else could understand, but in this new age of salvation He has graciously revealed it to us. The world has its own wisdom, its own way of looking at things. Worldly wisdom looks at God's commandments and sees restrictions, burdens, outdated rules that don't apply to our modern, sophisticated society. God's wisdom sees the whole picture. Paul brings a wisdom of a higher order and an entirely different quality, the only wisdom worthy of the name. The Corinthians would be able to grasp Paul's preaching as wisdom if they were more open to the Spirit and receptive to the new insight and language the Spirit teaches.

When lawmakers today reinterpret or change fundamental moral laws, they often claim they are making progress, that they are being compassionate, that they are giving people freedom and choice. We have seen this with abortion laws that were supposedly created to protect the vulnerable under strict criteria. But what do we have now? Abortion used as birth control, the destruction of millions of innocent lives. Now we face proposed laws on assisted suicide, with promises of safeguards and protections. If history teaches us anything, it is that these "safeguards" will erode over time. A society that destroys its most vulnerable, the baby in the womb, the elderly, the sick, has lost its way and is in grave spiritual danger. This is what happens when we rely on worldly wisdom instead of God's wisdom. Worldly wisdom can only see what is visible, what is measurable, what fits within our limited human understanding. God's wisdom sees eternity, knows where true happiness lies, understands what we truly need, even when we think we know better.

In today's Gospel, Jesus makes His position clear. He has not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. Jesus is not rejecting God's law, He is revealing a deeper meaning, showing us that God's law goes beyond external actions to the very attitudes of our heart. Jesus' interpretation fulfilled the law in the sense that it extended it beyond the letter to the inner attitudes from which sin ultimately derives. It is not enough to refrain from murder; we must drive out anger and hatred from our hearts. It is not enough to avoid adultery; we must guard our thoughts and our eyes. It is not enough to tell the truth under oath, we must be people of integrity who speak the truth at all times.

Jesus sets a high bar because He knows that sin does not start with the action, it starts with the thought, the attitude, the disposition of the heart. If we only focus on external behaviour while harbouring anger, lust, and deceit in our hearts, we are like whitewashed tombs, clean on the outside but corrupt within. God's law is a law of love, not restriction. It is a roadmap that leads us to true freedom, freedom from sin, from the slavery of our disordered desires, freedom to become the people God created us to be. When we follow God's law, we are not restricted, we are liberated. Think about a stream or river, the banks do not restrict the water, they give it direction and power. Without banks, the water would spread out, become shallow and stagnant, and lose all its force. God's commandments are like riverbanks, channelling our freedom in the direction that leads to life, purpose, and joy.

Following God's law requires our attention. It requires that we examine not just our actions but our hearts, being honest about our motivations, our desires, our hidden resentments and secret sins. It requires that we seek reconciliation even when we think we are in the right. It requires that we live with integrity in every situation, not just when someone is watching or when we have sworn an oath. This is impossible for us without God’s grace. That is why we need prayer, we need the sacraments, we need the community of the Church to support us. We cannot navigate this journey on our own. We need God's wisdom, strength, and guidance every step of the way. When we come to a junction, just like the Israelites in the desert, we have a choice. One leads to life, the other to death. God has given us clear directions through His commandments, fulfilled and perfected by Jesus, but He will not force us to follow them. The choice is ours. Will we trust our own wisdom or God's wisdom? Follow the world's constantly changing moral compass or the eternal truth revealed by God? Seek shortcuts and loopholes, or will we follow the life-giving path of discipleship?

God has given us everything we need for the journey. His commandments as our roadmap, His Son as our perfect example, His Spirit as our guide, His Church as our companion, and He has given us the freedom to choose. Let us choose life, choose to follow the clear guidance God has given us. Let us not be deceived by the false wisdom of the world that tries to reinterpret, water down, or bypass God's eternal law. Let us have the courage to live with integrity, to guard our hearts, to seek reconciliation, and to be people of truth. May we follow the laws God gave us in His wisdom, resist the temptation to use our own limited understanding to reinterpret or circumvent them. God has given us a reliable and trusted roadmap, updated and perfected by Jesus, a map that we can rely on totally to lead us safely to our destination, eternal life with Him.

God Bless Brendan