I Have Not Come to Abolish, but to Fulfill: Sir 15, 1 Cor 2, and Jesus and the Law in Mt 5

Non veni solvere legem aut prophetas: non veni solvere, sed adimplere.
Mt 5:17

The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, the last Sunday before Lent, brings together three texts around the relationship between human freedom, divine wisdom, and the fulfillment of the Law. Sir 15:15-20 proclaims that the keeping of the commandments lies within the reach of whoever wills it: God has set before every person fire and water, life and death, and each one chooses freely. 1 Cor 2:6-10 presents the hidden wisdom that God decreed for the glory of His elect, and that the Spirit reveals. Mt 5:17-37 presents Jesus affirming that He did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, and deepening it radically: from the prohibition of murder to the control of anger, from the prohibition of adultery to the control of desire, from divorce to integrity of speech. The three texts describe the same demand: the law is not an obstacle to freedom; it is the path to its full realization.

I. The First Reading: Sir 15:15-20

Sirach affirms, against every fatalism or determinism: “If you choose, you will keep the commandments. And to be faithful is a choice that depends on your own will” (Sir 15:15). God has set before every person fire and water: “Stretch out your hand toward whichever you wish” (v. 16). Before every person lie life and death, and whichever of the two he chooses will be given to him (v. 17). Sirach articulates human freedom in a radical way: obedience to God is not a natural necessity but a choice. This does not mean that God’s grace is unnecessary: it means that grace does not annul freedom but empowers it. God does not want slaves but sons who choose freely. And His eyes see the works of men and He knows all their deeds (v. 19): freedom is real, and so are its consequences.

II. The Second Reading: 1 Cor 2:6-10

Paul distinguishes two kinds of wisdom: that of the powerful of this age, which is being reduced to nothing, and the wisdom of God, mysterious and hidden (1 Cor 2:6-7). This wisdom was decreed by God before the ages for our glory (v. 7b). The rulers of this age did not know it: had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (v. 8). And he cites Is 64:3: “What eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart imagined, this is what God has prepared for those who love Him” (v. 9). This reality was revealed by the Spirit (v. 10): hidden wisdom is not attained by intellectual effort, but by openness to the Spirit who searches the depths of God. Sir 15 describes the human freedom that chooses the commandments. 1 Cor 2 describes what God has prepared for those who love Him, beyond what any law could require: a reality that eye has not seen nor ear heard.

III. Evangelium: Mt 5:17-37

Jesus declares in the Sermon on the Mount: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish, but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17). What is new in Jesus is not rupture but fullness. The letter of the Law forbade murder. Jesus goes to the root: “whoever is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment” (v. 22). Violence begins in the heart, before it reaches the hand. The letter forbade adultery. Jesus goes to the root: “everyone who looks at a woman with desire has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (v. 28). Fidelity begins in the gaze, before it reaches the act. On divorce, Jesus leads back to the original intention of the Creator: what God has joined, let no man separate. On oaths, the radicalism is greater still: not to swear at all. “Let your speech be: yes, yes. No, no. Whatever goes beyond this comes from the Evil One” (v. 37). Jesus does not make the Law heavier: He makes it more interior. The Pharisee fulfilled the letter. The disciple of Jesus is called to fulfill the spirit, out of a transformed heart.

IV. Mary and the Fulfillment of the Law

Sir 15 states that keeping the commandments is a free choice: God has set before man fire and water, life and death, and each one stretches out his hand toward whatever he wills. Mary is the creature who stretched out her hand toward life with perfect freedom: the fiat of Lk 1:38 is not resignation but the total adherence of the human will to the divine will. Sir 15 says that it is possible to align freedom with God: Mary showed that it is possible to do so without reserve. 1 Cor 2 says that “what eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, this is what God has prepared for those who love Him” (v. 9). Mary was the first creature to receive, in her womb, what no human heart had yet conceived: the Word of God made flesh. The unimaginable became reality in her before it became reality for the world. And Mt 5:17 says that Jesus did not come to abolish but to fulfill. Mary is the place where the promise of Is 7:14, “behold, the virgin shall conceive,” found its fulfillment. She did not abolish the Law of Israel: she lived it in a way so interior and so full that she herself became the sign of the new thing that God had promised. The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time invites the disciple to this same path: from the letter to the heart, from exterior observance to free adherence, from minimal fulfillment to the fullness of love.