02/15/2026

These past few weeks, the Sunday’s Gospels are in the context of the Sermon on the mountain, which began with the Beatitude. And he spotted the role of disciples in the world through the address of the Salt and Light in last Sunday’s gospel. And today, Jesus highlights the practice of the law.

“Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law.”

What does he mean by that the smallest letter will not pass from the law? Would it literally mean the importance of the letter itself? If so, I would’ve been in big trouble; As you know, I sometimes make mistakes in pronunciation while I read the gospel or my homily.

Let me share one of those ‘humiliating’ stories, which you always like:

I think it was a few weeks after I arrived in the States. I was proclaiming the Gospel, which was about a man possessed by a demon who ran and prostrated before Jesus. But that time, my English was not good, and I didn’t know many vocabularies. So, without knowing, I read it like, “Catching sight of Jesus from a distance, he ran up and prostate himself before him,” Yes, I missed 'R' from 'prostrate.' I heard giggling. But I had no idea why. And I didn’t even know what prostate means at that time. To make matters worse, I had written "prostate" throughout my entire homily. I might have sounded like a urologist rather than a priest that day.

But when it comes to the Law, Jesus isn’t acting like a Spelling Bee judge. He isn't demanding a timid, over-meticulous obsession with the law itself. In his time, the Pharisees used the Law as a cage to trap people or a pedestal to look down on them. And people got used to that blind adherence to the law.

So, Jesus called their attention to the spirit of the Law, to move beyond the law and deeper into the heart, so that they live more actively in their faith journey. By this, he encourages his followers to surpass the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. Then Jesus gives some examples: speaking of the sin of killing, Jesus calls attention to spiritual killing. And speaking of the sin of adultery, Jesus guides us to look into our minds to guard against spiritual adultery.

From a broader perspective, we can apply them to our faith life in general. We often let our faith life become a series of "regulations" that make us feel guilty, rigid, or stuck in "spiritual inertia." Then, we become passive, merely trying to avoid the violations. Jesus urges us to practice an active faith life, leading us to see the core of our faith. Surpassing the righteousness of the Pharisees means moving from "I have to" to "I want to."

So, as you go about your week, I invite you to carry this question in your heart: 'Is my faith a burden of "I must," or the freedom of "I want"?' Do you follow the Lord out of a sense of duty, or out of a desire for His heart?"