Sunday Homily: How God’s Law Protects, Empowers, and Lifts Us
Readings and Virtual for February 15, 2026, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time. Update on Caracas; Recovery Road; Let's Hear it for the Rain!
Readings for Mass this Sunday:
Sirach 15:15-20
Psalm 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
Matthew 5:17-37
Dear Friends and Family,
Wisdom is a prominent theme in today's readings, and in particular, wisdom as expressed in the word and the law of God. This is an engaging topic for me, as someone who has occasionally struggled to make sense of some of the Church's rules and regulations. Understanding that God's law proceeds from a place of ultimate knowledge, of the most ancient wisdom, can assist us when, at times, we might find ourselves wondering about a particular teaching, a particular regulation or an aspect of canon law.
The first thing I want to point out on this subject is that the law, the rules and the restrictions, exist not for the purpose of restricting us but for the purpose of first protecting and then empowering us. God, after all, knows how the universe is made. God knows the consequences of our actions, consequences which we might argue are built into the system. It's a good and moral created order; abuse it and we encounter consequences; we encounter a warping of the goodness and the morality; we refer to this warping effect as punishment or the penalty due to sin, which is fine, but it is really as simple as cause and effect.
Because its Creator knows how the universe is made, that Creator may be trusted to tell us how to live in accordance with its design. We might think of God's word, God's law, as a user's manual. A practical guide to living in the material world; a practical guide to reality itself. We ignore this practical guide at our peril.
British writer Dorothy Sayers once described our freedom to rebel against God's law, using the laws of physics as an example. We are, for instance, free to step off the observation platform of the Eiffel Tower, but that freedom will not prevent the law of gravity from guaranteeing a certain unpleasant result. This is where the protective part of the law of God comes into play. There is, however, beyond protection, empowerment, in a deep reading, a deep grasp and understanding of the wisdom which informs God's law. Again, we might look to the laws of physics for a metaphor; several of them come into play in lifting a jumbo jet from the runway, despite the law of gravity. God's law (from the Ten Commandments to Catholic Canon Law) seeks to "lift" us the way certain laws of physics lift a 747.
The first reading assures us that "immense is the wisdom of the Lord; mighty in power, he sees all things. The eyes of God behold his work and he understands every human deed" (vss. 18-19). Given this reality, the Commandments, spoken of in this passage (vs. 15) may be accepted and obeyed or rejected, but the author declares that "set before you are fire and water...before everyone are life and death, whichever they choose will be given them" (vss. 16-17).
The psalm beautifully enunciates this understanding -- the depth of the wisdom informing God's laws and precepts (vs. 18). Psalm 119, the longest of the psalms at 176 verses, frequently harkens back to this observation, to this trust in the ancient wisdom which underwrites and informs the precepts of the Lord.
The second reading expands on this understanding of God's wisdom:
"Yet we do speak of a wisdom of those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. Rather, we speak of God's wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for our glory and which none of the rulers of the age knew..." (vss. 6-8)
After all this reassurance of the law of God being founded in the wisdom of God, the passage from Matthew gives us Jesus enumerating many laws, often as not expanding on them. Jesus takes the Mosaic Law to the next level; it is not enough to love our neighbor and hate our enemies. Rather, we must love our enemies as well. Matthew 5:12 to 7:12 constitutes almost a legal litany; Jesus propounds upon subjects having to do with the moral life from tithing to divorce to anger management. To the extent that we might be inclined to think of Jesus as a law-giver, this section of the Gospel of Matthew gives us our greatest set of insights.
This section of Matthew culminates in Matthew 7:12, the Golden Rule: "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets."
This was a fairly radical understanding of the law at the time. I would argue that it remains so, today.
Well, on the subject of laws...the people of Venezuela have been living under a harshly unjust set of laws (loose use of the term; dictates is probably closer to the reality) for fifteen years now, and just in the last six weeks...
There are some hopeful signs beginning to glimmer here and there. Hundreds of political prisoners have recently been freed and the government is discussing a general amnesty for leaders of the opposition. Many political prisoners remain incarcerated, but my feeling about this is that we will gladly take whatever gestures toward a restoration of the once vibrant Venezuelan democracy that we can get.
Astonishing to me, there is as well just a smattering here and there of critical analysis and commentary on the part of the intelligentsia, not just folks in the media but also some in academia. There is guarded criticism of the current regime; there is carefully phrased hope for a more open and free and fair public discussion regarding the nation's future. This is huge.
The colectivos (just think of a twenty-first century Latino version of the brownshirts) continue to control the city streets and the country roads; locally ruling Venezuela almost as if it were a collection of Medieval vassal states, each with its own set of enforcers. Until the colectivos are disarmed and disbanded (and in my view, brought to justice) there will be no experience of new freedoms among the vast majority of Venezuelans.
But as I have observed before, the current regime, which controls the colectivos (well, in theory, at least) is likely best equipped to ultimately deal with them. It is hard to see how a new government, consisting of opposition leaders, could disband the colectivos. Certainly, there are ways it might be managed, but all of them are theoretical and the practical reality is thousands of armed private citizens who have incurred the deep and lasting wrath of their oppressed fellow citizens. The colectivos will not go down without a fight -- or -- without some kind of amnesty for them. The current regime is likely best prepared to deal with them effectively.
In any event, as I have said before, and leaving aside all the (legitimate) arguments about how this change in Venezuela has been brought about...for the first time since 2019 I have hope that things there are actually going to improve. The above-mentioned recent developments underscore that hope.
I did not mention this at the time, but I finished last week's homily feverish and battling serious sinus pain. I got this thing that has been making the rounds this winter; fever-driven headaches, an on-and-off again sore throat, heavy congestion and as noted, real pain in my sinuses. The worst I have felt in decades.
Fortunately the worst symptoms hit fast and departed; I came down with the thing overnight Tuesday before last, and by last Saturday was dealing with just congestion and fatigue. It was heavy enough so that I actually took a couple days out sick; extremely rare for me. In eleven years at O'Dowd, I think I have used five sick days total. I am gone so much from my classes already because of retreats, social justice immersion days, special Masses and so on, that I can't indulge taking sick leave too!
Feeling virtually recovered early this week, I remarked to parishioners at Mass what a difference it is, to simply feel normal again, after having spent several days more in bed than out of it. It feels GREAT, to feel normal again.
Finally, how about the change in the weather? Prayers being answered, as far as I am concerned, and I always want to give thanks and praise when prayers are answered. Not just rain. But COLD rain. The coldest storms of the winter, according to the delightful forecasts, showing as they do five days of rain in the next ten, and highs never getting out of the fifties, even on the sunny days. Cold rain here means snow -- lots of it -- in the Sierras, in the Cascades. Tons of snow in the forecast, between now and what used to be called George Washington's Birthday (the 22nd).
God be praised. God be thanked.
Gonna wrap it. Sorry this is late -- it was a hectic week, catching up so much after being knocked out the way I was, last week.
Take care and God bless.
Fr. Brawn