The Holy Martyr Aquilina; The Holy Triphillius, Bishop of Leucosia on Cyprus; Our Venerable Father Anthony of Padua.
Post-feast of Pentecost.
Romans 2:14-29; Matthew 5:33-41.
Read Matthew 5:33-41
The idea of how to allow exceptions to the rule is being addressed by Jesus in this passage. Here Jesus is making reference to the Old Testament passages the allowed for oaths. The idea being that if a person did not declare that he was speaking under some sort of oath than he should not be held accountable if he changes his position. It is interesting how Jesus addresses this issue. Instead of just saying he doesn’t agree with this practice he basically transcends it by declaring that it would be better to simply keep to your word whether you spoke under oath or not. By this sort of reasoning Jesus is not condemning those who insist on following the old practices, but He teaches that there is a better way of dealing with these situations if one is so inclined. If a person actually takes Jesus’ advice and begins to practice it, what that person will most likely discover is that the new practice works just fine and so the old practice is no longer relevant and is simply forgotten about. Thus we can begin to understand how Jesus came not so much to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.