“I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that
of the scribes and Pharisees,
you will not enter into the Kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20)
There is something that almost all of us did not like doing, even from the time we were very young. And that was being “good”. It was always such a plague, was it not, when our parents would tell us, “Be good”.
Why?
Why should we want to be good when the rest of our playmates were bad and apparently got away with murder? It just did not seem to be fair. We wanted to be into everything along with the rest of them. But, no, we had to be good.
Jesus was saying the same thing in today’s Gospel.
He referred to the scribes and Pharisees — the official teachers of the time. Then, Jesus set a high bar for the people since He told them that their righteousness needed to surpass the scribes and the Pharisees. That was because the scribes and Pharisees talked a good game but they did not live what they taught.
Jesus did not want us merely to know what was expected of us but to live it as well, to “be good”.
FAITH ACTION: What can you do today to perfect your living of the faith so that you will be a good example to others?