Saturday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time

Today's Mass Readings

Today’s gospel reading continues the Sermon on the Mount from Matthew that we have been hearing over the past couple of days.

At first blush the injunction from Jesus, like many others throughout the sermon, seems to raise the stakes; to escalate the rule of Jewish law to an unattainable level – don’t simply make good on all of your oaths, rather don’t take any at all. But there’s more here. Of course the tradition of taking oaths, that is calling upon God as witness to one’s words, was a sign of one’s intent to fulfill the promise. Yet, as we can see from Jesus’ instruction to avoid swearing on heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or one’s head (Mt. 5:34-36), the practice of oath swearing was sometimes “cleverly” used to trick people. If one could take an oath without really swearing before God, one was “off the hook” so to speak; it was like having one’s fingers crossed behind one’s back. Once one learns how to betray the cultural system of trust, it is very, very tempting to do it again and again.

So, Jesus points out that the practice of taking oaths opens up the possibility for abusing the oath system – an abuse that can be highly addictive. That power advantage gained over another person in faking the oath, and the rush that goes along with it, can prove desirable again and again. Jesus, therefore, offers not an impossible ideal to strive at, but a way out of this potentially hazardous addiction. If one were simply to tell the truth, there would be no room for such manipulation of the oath-taking system; and thereby, no abiding hazard to the development of one’s relationship with God.

What we can learn from this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, then, is not the legalistic “a Christian cannot take an oath” but rather, that truth-telling, plain and simple, will bring us closer to God. Therefore, let us repent today for the times in our relationships – especially those most important ones – that we have opted for the power play of a clever mistruth instead of simple, honest truth-telling. Let us pray, then, for the courage to tell the truth to everyone today, even if and when it seems most difficult.

- Tim Gabrielli