If you were to take a look at my school transcripts you would pretty quickly see that I was not the greatest of students.  Nothing dramatic that screamed “what is up with that?”  In a lot of ways it worked out to being perfectly average.  Mostly B’s – a few A’s and few more C’s than I’d like to admit.  No one could ever quite figure out what was holding me back.  I had been diagnosed with  attention deficit disorder (if you couldn’t tell, still have it).  But nothing that explained everything.  There was no dramatic learning disability, which I am thankful for, but that also made it frustrating without being able to pinpoint the source of my struggles.

Things got more noticeable in High School.  Our report cards for the year had six columns – four marking periods… and then two ominous columns labeled for Midterm and Final Exams.  For the marking periods, I would get B’s and even occasionally an A.  Midterms and Finals were disasters – C’s, D’s – sometimes worse.

Thank you for taking the time to read this homily for the SIXTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – February 15, 2026 – Your support means a great deal to me, and I’m deeply grateful for the many who share these messages with their friends, families and social media followers. If you’ve found meaning in these words, I’d be grateful if you’d share them with others who might benefit.

And for those who prefer listening, you can find the audio version on SoundCloud HERE or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes HERE. Your comments, messages, and the way you’ve embraced these homilies continue to inspire me.   Sincerely in Christ -Father Jim

It wasn’t until college that it finally clicked what was going on.  I wasn’t really learning the material I was studying.  Ot at least not in the way that actually matters.   I was really really good at memorizing answers to the questions I knew would be on the test.  I’d cram, regurgitate and move on.  Homework, quizzes, even class discussions – I could fake my way through.  But when an exam came, when I was suppoed to pull all of it together and acually understand, connect the dots, give real answerrs, I’d come up empty.  That’s why after four years of Italian in High School I didn’t even try to take a proficiency test to try to test out of having to take a Foreign Language class in college.  I knew the words, but I didn’t know the language.

There’s one high school English test I’ll never forget.  Junior year with one of my favorite teachers – Mr. Epps.  We were studying Chaucer’s Caterbury Tales.  I had memorized everything I though would be on that test.  When Mr Epps handed it out, I flew through the multiple choice section – racing against the clock, convinced that if I didn’t act quickly enough, I’d forget something I had just been repeating to myself looking at my notes one last time before the test began. Like the information was quickly evaporating from my brain.

What I didn’t do was read the instructions.  Right there at the top it clearly said when answering multiple choice questions, you had to write the letter AND the full answer (so, for example “A- Chaucer” not just “A”). Well I only wrote the letters.  Those were the only A’s I’d see anytime soon.  When I got the test back there was these red dashes next to every answers and the directions also underlined in red with a note “Mr. Chern, what sort of punishment do you propose would be fair for not following instructions?”  Then I turned the page which went into the open-ended/short essay sections… the part that actually required thought, understanding, reflection… which I blanked completely.  I mean I wrote stuff, but it probably would’ve been better had I not.  My final grade was 34 out of 100.  And underneath it the words that still sting, although I have to laugh at Mr. Epps sarcasm: “Perhaps that’s punishment enough.”

That memory came back to me as I sat with today’s Gospel.  Because it felt like Jesus was saying the same thing: You’ve been memorized the answers – but missed the meaning.

We are now week three into Jesus’ greatest, most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount.  And Jesus doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to what it means to be a disciple. Which was and is revolutionary.  First he gave us the Beatitudes (blessed are the poor, the meek, the peacemakers) reminding us that God’s not doling out blessings and curses based on our acts but calling us to seek Him in the midst of the ups and downs of life.  Then last week, he told us to be salt and light, to actually live our faith in a way that matters in the world.

And then we get to this part of the sermon today.  And all of a sudden the caricature people have of Jesus as this laid-back, spiritual hippie telling everyone just love one another (being left incredibly vague so that you define love any way you want)… this theory that Jesus has come to loosen things up, to relax the rules, to tell us it’s fine, don’t worry about it, we (meaning the Holy Trinity) understand – life’s tough…   all of that gets annihilated today with that one sentence:

“I have not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.”  As he then proceeds to explain what that means:

You have heard it said “You shall not kill” – but I say to you whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment…  You have heard it said “You shall not commit adultery” – but I say to you whoever looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery in his heart.

Jesus is taking us deeper.  Beneath the surface.  Beneath the behavior.   Beneath the rules.  Beneath the check boxes.  He;s not asking whether technically you broke a commandment or not. He’s asking what’s going on in your heart.

Think back to those words from the Old Testament we heard in the first reading from Sirach: If you choose, you can keep the commandments, they will save you….  Fire and water, Life and death, good and evil are set before us.  Stretch out your hand for whichever you choose… God doesn’t program us like robots.  He gives us the precious, divine gift of Freedom – and with it the responsibility of choosing who we become.  St. Paul in the Second Reading from his letter to the Corinthians says we speak a wisdom not of this age, a wisdom hidden in God.  What does that mean?  He’s saying that the world operates on surface-level morality “Did I technically break the rule?”  While the wisdom of God asks “what are you doing with the precious gift of life I’ve given you.  How are you utilizing the potential that is within you?”

And that’s what makes this Gospel so devastatingly uncomfortable, because if we’re honest, a lot of us approach our faith the way I approached my English class.

What do I need to pass?

How close can I get to the line without technically crossing it?

Is this really a sin?  Is it mortal or venial?  Where’s the loophole?

 

We memorize answers.  But Jesus keeps asking “What’s going on in your heart?”

Take anger.  I’m going out on a limb here but I’d bet most of us haven’t literally murdered anyone.  GREAT Very good start.  But Jesus isn’t grading us on a curve.  He’s asking – But what do you do with resentment?  With bitterness?  That grudge from years ago?  With the way someone wronged you?  We may not have murdered anyone… but talk about pandemics – look around the world and ask, how many of us are consumed by anger?  Anger at politics.  Anger at the Church.  Anger in families.  Anger at past relationships.  Anger at ourselves.  It’s so common that what have so many of us done?  We’ve tried to baptize it calling it “righteous anger.”  Hey sometimes, no doubt, it is…  But – even then – how unchecked do we let it run rent free in our minds, our hearts and souls?

I know… I know – I got my list of exceptions – reasons my anger, my grudges, my little lies should get a pass that Jesus has to agree with me on.  But as I’m getting ready to share that argument Jesus interrupts me and says “yeah – if you’re coming to the altar and remember your brother has something against you – go first and be reconciled.”  BUT – BUT –  But nothing – He continues… Don’t compartmentalize the gift of faith.  Don’t come to Mass and just ignore the fact that you haven’t spoken to your sibling in three years.  Don’t receive my Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity into your Body and Soul while you’re actively nurturing hatred.

He’s not being dramatic.  He’s the divine physician doing cardiac surgery on us.

Then let’s talk about lust.  In a world of dating apps, reels, porn, hookup culture – Jesus’ words sound extreme.  “Whoever looks at someone with lust has already committed adultery in his heart.”  Yikes…  We want to shut down, get defensive and change the subject.  But He asks us to listen.  No – He’s not saying attraction is sinful.  He’s saying reducing another human being to an object for consumption – deforms the heart.  And our world, our culture has MONETIZED that deformation.  We scroll, we swipe, we consume images of people made in the image of God – and we train our brains to detach desire from dignity.

Jesus isn’t trying to shame us.  He’s trying to free us.  Because lust doesn’t just harm the other person – it hollows us.

And then when He speaks about divorce, about oaths, about integrity “let your yes be yes and your no be no…”  In other words – don’t play games.  Don’t look for loopholes.  Be whole.  Be integrated.

The somewhat terrifying thing about this Gospel is that Jesus doesn’t lower the bar.  He raises it to the level of the heart.

Providentially, we’re hearing this days before the season of Lent begins.  Ash Wednesday is this week.  We’ll be marked with those dirty crosses and remided to “repent and believe in the Gospel” to “remember that you are dust..”  It’s not meant to be a Catholic Self-improvement challenge, punishing ourselves or proving how holy we are.  When we embrace the practices of Prayer, Fasting and Giving – that is a way we make space in our lives fo God to work within us – to fulfill the law in our hearts, to show us what real love looks like.  It’s about letting go of the shortcuts, the surface level and letting God do something deeper.

And one way is to really examine our hearts.  This Gospel we just heard couldn’t give us a better template to Examine our Conscience and prepare to make a good confession this Lent.

Not just – Have I killed – but who am I angry with?  Really – and honestly… who have I gossiped about?  Posted something to humiliate someone?  Nursed a silent contempt for?  Not just have I committed adultery but how do I look at others?  What do I click on?  What habits have I normalized?  Not just do I lie under oath – but am I a person of integrity, do I exaggerate?  Do I present a false filtered version of myself online?

Remember those words of Sirach – Before you is Life and death, good and evil are set before us.  Stretch out your hand for whichever you choose…   Too often people react like that’s a threat.  It’s not.  It’s God treating us with the dignity as being made in His image and likeness.  It’s Him saying YOU ARE NOT STUCK.  You are not your habits.  You are no your worst sin.  You are free. But freedom isn’t free.  It requires sacrifice.  It requires boldness and courage.

When I think back to Mr. Epps and that train wreck of a test – that 34 out of a 100.  I didn’t fail because I was stupid.  I failed because I stayed on the surface.  I learned just enough to get by (well not on that test, but you get the point) I was doing the minimum but not enough to understand.  And sometimes our spiritual lives can look exactly like that.  We know just enough of Catholicism to survive.  We know the rules. We know the answers.  But we haven’t allowed Jesus into the depths of our hearts.  We haven’t allowed Him who pursues us to truly find us.

Jesus did not come to abolish the law.  He came to fulfill it – by fulfilling us.  By bring us into the fullness of who we were created to be.  Lent is not about God catching you doing something wrong.  It’s about going into the wilderness with Jesus.  It’s in that intimate of spaces and places to move beyond memorization into meaning.  From surface compliance into interior conversion.

So as we move into Ash Wednesday – don’t just get hung up and distracted on “what am I giving up?” but ‘Where has my heart grown small?  Where am I settling for technicalities?  Where am memorizing answers instead of becoming a disciple?  Because the saints – they weren’t people who figured out how close they could get to the line.  They were people who let Jesus transform their entire lives.  And that’s what He wants from all of us.  Not just rule-followers.  But men and women whose anger becomes mercy.  Whose desire becomes reverence. Whose words speak truth.  Whose lives become integrated.

That’s the wisdom that St. Paul speaks about.  The wisdom hidden in God is that Holiness isn’t about behavior management.  It’s about ongoing conversion.

So I invite you this week, before you come forward to receive ashes.  Before you settle on what you’re giving up.  Sit with this Gospel from today.  Let Jesus get out His red pen… Let Him underline the instructions you’ve skipped.  Let Him circle the areas you’ve rushed.  Let Him ask you “What sort of punishment do you propose for not following the instructions…” and then look up, look up at the Cross and see He’s already suffered far worse than anything we could propose and see and hear His mercy.  Because in the end, Jesus isn’t after perfect scores —He’s after hearts, yours and mine, made fully alive.