Reflection by Rev. Leonard N. Peterson
The pleasant lady parishioner checking out my supermarket order decides to share her nervous entry into “New Car World.” She admits being baffled by the new car she just bought. After all she had kept the “old buggy” for 14 years! Another example comes my priest friend, now gone to God. He admitted that he had arranged for two Saturday morning “dashboard lessons” from the very salesman who sold touted the car’s virtues.
I detect a certain parallel here with how one is to handle a whole new outlook both on life and on one’s relationship with God. Of course, God’s ways are not as well-known as they once were.
Gone are the days when whole generations automatically attended a Catholic elementary school, followed by Catholic high school and even college. So, the whole Catholic way of life, including Christ’s particular teaching on specifics, is as strange and alien as the tech in a new car.
This is not to forget the tremendous effort put forth by many dedicated soul’s work to educate and inspire the minds of young people and searchers for the truth of any age.
The “Sermon on the Mount” is at the heart of Matthew’s gospel. Its length means that it must not have been preached by Jesus at one time. Both He and His audience would have long since either fainted or walked away. Fortunately, we are blessed to have it easily accessible in book form or online. A good Catholic bible has many helpful footnotes to help us appreciate the text.
We are now only a few days out from the great penitential season of Lent. But that dominant characteristic does not preclude us from going back to basics about the faith or expanding our knowledge as a Lenten project. And with no worries about strange blinking dashboard lights and odd icons on your car’s touch screen! Just get started. Why? Because “Procrastination is the assassination of motivation.”
God love you and give you, His peace.
Rev. Peterson’s Reading & Gospel Summary
Reading I: Sirach 15: 15-20
The writer places the choice before us between good and evil and insists that those who keep the Lord’s commandments are the truly happy people.
Reading II: 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10
Jesus reveals a whole new wisdom. To follow it in one’s life is to be rewarded by one day seeing “what no eye has seen” and hearing “what no ear has heard.”
The Gospel: Matthew 5: 17-37, or 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37
Jesus completely fulfills, or makes complete, the Law of Moses and the Old Testament prophecies. He also introduces a New Covenant that not only surpasses the Old but now embraces the Gentile world also. His powerful words repeat: “But I say.”