2/16/19: 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time: The Instruction Manual for Life

In today's Gospel we hear a chunk of Jesus's teaching from the Sermon on the Mount. It's tempting for us to listen to his teaching with a lack of enthusiasm when it challenges us. Yet what we often misunderstand is that Jesus does not give us the law in order to restrict our freedom or limit our happiness. On the contrary! The law that Jesus gives is the way that leads to our happiness. And the reason that we can be sure of this is that God is the one who created us, and so it is God who knows how it is that we will achieve what we are all looking for: happiness and fulfillment.