Be Kind, Tender-Hearted, and Forgiving Sixth Sunday Ordinary Time Year A
Sirach 15:15-20; Psalm 119; 1 Corinthians 2:6-10; Matthew 5:17-37
In today’s Gospel passage, Jesus reveals that he did not come to abolish the Ten Commandments but to fulfill them. One example that Jesus gives is by teaching that the Fifth Commandment, which prohibits murder, is fulfilled in the New Testament:
You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, You shall not kill; and whoever kills will be liable to judgment. But I say to you, whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raqa,’ will be answerable to the Sanhedrin; and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ will be liable to fiery Gehenna.
With these words, Jesus is not teaching that the emotion of anger is evil, especially since the Gospels describe Jesus as being angry. For example, Mark in his gospel describes Jesus looking around at people who were upset with him for having healed a man with a withered hand “with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart”. (Mark 3:5) Since Jesus is the Son of God and, hence, sinless, his experience of anger could only have been completely ordered in an absolutely holy manner.
Another example of Jesus expressing his anger is when, as described by John in his gospel, he made “a whip of cords” and “drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple”. (John 2:15) It is important to note that there is no indication in the text that the whip that Jesus used was used to beat people; instead, according to a commentary with reference to the original Greek, the whip was what Jesus used “to move the animals out of the temple courts, not a weapon for assaulting people.”[i]
The anger that Jesus condemns is anger that we accept with our intellect and wills and direct in an immoderate, unjust manner so that a brother or sister is unjustly hurt by what we say or do. For example, if I insult a brother by calling him “Raqa”, “fool”, or worse terms with the intention of hurting him, I have sinned.
Meanly calling our brother or sister names merits punishment, the “fiery Gehenna”, in Jesus’ words. As Brant Pitre points out, in the ancient Jewish context in which Jesus taught, the term Gehenna is not equivalent to the Hell of the damned. Instead, ancient Judaism also used the term Gehenna to describe the state after death for those who had sinned in minor ways and needed to be purified of their sins by spiritual fire, so that, after being purified, they could experience the heavenly joy of being with God, unencumbered by sin.[ii]
The Holy Spirit, through Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, similarly teaches:
Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice,and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:29-32)
Lord Jesus, may your grace heal us so that when we experience anger, we express this emotion given to us as a gift from our Heavenly Father in appropriate, virtuous ways and never in a manner to hurt our brother, sister, or created reality unjustly.
May God Bless You All – Father Peter
[i] “Why Jesus Apologetics,” whyjesusapologetics.com, https://whyjesusapologetics.com/2025/08/19/did-jesus-beat-people-with-a-whip-rethinking-the-temple-cleansing//. “The key term here is pantas (πάντας), the accusative plural form of pas(πᾶς), meaning “all.” In Greek, the word pantas is followed by the phrase ta te probata kai tous boas (τά τε πρόβατα καὶ τοὺς βόας), which translates to “both the sheep and the cattle.” The use of te…kai (a Greek construction meaning “both…and”) specifies that pantas refers exclusively to the animals.” For a more scholarly take see the article The Messianic Whippersnapper: Did Jesus Use a Whip on People in the Temple (John 2:15)? N. Clayton Croy, Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 128, No. 3 (Fall, 2009), pp. 555-568 (14 pages), https://doi.org/10.2307/25610203. Croy asserts, “it is very difficult to construe the Greek as meaning anything but “both the sheep and oxen,” “the sheep as well as the oxen,” or perhaps “not only the sheep but also the oxen.” Croy also cites the sixth century AD Egyptian monk, Cosmas Indicopleustes’ Christian Topography, in which Cosmas commented in Greek, “he did not in any way strike a human being, but he adopted an admirable and becoming and appropriate course, for he struck the brute beasts only, as it is written: And having made a whip of cords he drove all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen, as much as to say: He struck these as living but irrational creatures, driving also out of the temple even the things that were brought for sacrifice according to the law.” Theodore of Mopsuestia is also cited by scholars as one who interpreted the text similarly.
[ii] Brant Pitre, “6th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A),” catholicproductions.com.
Catholic Evangelization 