OMELIE / Omelie EN

15 feb 2026

15/02/2026 - 6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Year A

15/02/2026 - 6th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - Year A

1st reading Sir 15:15-20 from Psalm 118 2nd reading 1 Cor 2:6-10 Gospel Mt 5:17-37

The first sentence heard from the book of Sirach is this: ‘If you want to observe his commandments, they will keep you safe; if you trust in him, you too will live.’ These words give us the correct perspective: God's commandments are not his whims, but great wisdom. They protect us and defend us from the deceit of selfishness and the lies of our enemy. 'For the wisdom of the Lord is great; he is strong and powerful, and he sees everything': in fact, he sees not only the past but also the future; he knows how we are, what we really need, because he is the one who created us. We can therefore trust him and every word he says. He has no interest in deceiving us, because he created us with his love!

Unfortunately, God's wisdom has been misrepresented by men, even by those charged with making it known and explaining it to simple people. Jesus knows the difficult and deceptive situation that has arisen, and he seeks to remedy it. This is what we understand from the ‘Sermon on the Mount,’ which he began by proclaiming the Beatitudes and saying how precious his disciples, those who are following him, are to the world: they are the ones who will form the kingdom of heaven.

In the long passage we read today, he reviews some of God's commandments to correct the distortions and reworkings to which everyone had become accustomed. First of all, he begins by saying that he does not want to change the rules at all, but rather to enlighten us fully so that we understand them as God himself intends them. In fact, he says, “I have come... to fulfil” the Law and the Prophets, that is, the Word of God that we already know. What does “fulfilment” mean? It means, first of all, making us aware of the Father's will as a will of love, and living it as a response of love to the love we are receiving. Jesus wants us to learn to live as the “kingdom of heaven”. This phrase recurs often in his teaching. We should always remember that we live in the world, but as strangers: our way of life is distinct and specific as living in the kingdom of heaven. This is why our “justice” is different from that of the scribes and Pharisees and superior to it: they do not yet know this kingdom, and they do not live it, having not accepted its king.

The words that Jesus reviews in today's passage concern some of the Ten Commandments. First of all, what we know as the fifth: “You shall not kill”! When the Father gave this word to Moses, who was he thinking of if not Cain? What should Cain have done? Should he not have esteemed his brother Abel more than himself, since the sacrifice he offered was pleasing to God? He could also have learned from him to love and live in humility!

And when we read the sixth commandment, “You shall not commit adultery”, should we not begin to live it in our thoughts? Adultery does not come about because of others, but because we are not careful to be faithful to the gift of the woman that God has placed beside man. Even peoples who do not know God abhor adultery: it would suffice to reread how the Pharaoh of Egypt rebuked Abraham, who had placed his wife Sarah in a situation where she could become an adulteress. To live this word to its “fullest”, we will need to treat our eyes, our hands and our feet with determination. We will not allow our gaze, our work, our relationships and our travels to put us in a position to change the meaning of the word “love”. In the world, many selfish gestures are also called love. In the kingdom of heaven, this cannot happen!

And how do we use words in our relationships with others? In the world, oaths are used to deceive and harm, affirmations and denials are used to change reality according to our selfish interests. Yes and no are used not to make known the love of the Father, but to exalt ourselves or to slander others. In the kingdom of heaven this does not happen, it must not happen.

We will live all the commandments in such a way as to “fulfil” the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that is coming, indeed is already among us, and is surrounding the king sent by the Father, the king who was promised to David, announced by the angel to Mary, the Mother, and also to Joseph in a dream.

In this kingdom, St Paul tells us, we speak with perfect wisdom, which is that of God, the God who loves all people and wants them all to be saved from the enemy of man. Even to us, who listen to and love Jesus, God gives his Spirit, that “Spirit who knows everything well, even the depths of God”. It will therefore not be difficult for us to give ‘full fulfilment’ to God's various precious commandments!