The Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 15, 2026

Matthew 5, 17–37

Jesus said to his disciples: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. Amen, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter will pass from the law, until all things have taken place. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments will be called greatest in the kingdom of heaven. I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. 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. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar, and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny. You have heard that it was said, You shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into Gehenna. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body go into Gehenna.  It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a bill of divorce. But I say to you, whoever divorces his wife—unless the marriage is unlawful— causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Again you have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the evil one.”

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” 

Jesus speaks these words at the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew in the midst of the Sermon on the Mount. He has just proclaimed the Beatitudes — blessings that sound at once ancient and startlingly new. And so he anticipates the objection: Is this a replacement? Is this a revolution against Moses? He answers before anyone can accuse him.

“Do not think.” There is tenderness in that opening phrase. He knows how quickly human beings jump to conclusions. He knows that whenever something higher appears, we assume the lower must be rejected. But Christ does not destroy foundations. He builds upward from them. He is not an iconoclast standing before Sinai with a hammer. He is the Architect revealing what Sinai was always pointing toward.

“The Law and the Prophets.” For a first-century Jew, this phrase meant the whole of divine revelation — from Moses to Malachi. The commandments, the sacrifices, the psalms, the promises, the warnings. Nothing in Israel’s history was accidental. The Law formed a people. The Prophets purified and corrected them. The rituals trained their imagination. The moral precepts disciplined desire. The entire Old Covenant was a preparation. And preparation is not abolished when fulfillment arrives. It is completed.

 “Not to abolish but to fulfill” The Greek word plērōsai (“to fulfill”) is richer than the English equivalent. It does not merely mean “to obey” or “to finish.” It means to fill to the brim, to bring to fullness, to make complete. Christ fulfills the Law in several profound ways: he fulfills it personally. He keeps it perfectly: where Israel failed, he succeeds. Where Adam fell, he stands. The Law’s demand for righteousness finds its perfect embodiment in Him. He fulfills it in terms of it being a sign: every sacrifice, every Passover lamb, every priestly offering pointed toward Him. When He offers Himself on the Cross, the sacrificial system is not contradicted — it is consummated. In addition, he fulfills it morally: he deepens the commandments. Not only, “You shall not kill,” but “Do not harbor anger.” Not only, “You shall not commit adultery,” but “Do not look with lust.” He moves from the exterior act to the interior heart. The Law engraved on stone becomes the Law written within.

The Lord’s fulfillment of the Law  does not relax it; it intensifies it. Sometimes people imagine that “fulfillment” means softening. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Christ does not lower the standard — he raises it to divine proportions. Moses said: Be holy. Christ says: Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. The Old Law restrained evil. The new Law transforms the person.

Many Catholics today feel a tension between “law” and “love.” They imagine that rules belong to an inferior stage and that Christ frees us from structure. But Christ frees us from sin, not from meaning. He frees us from condemnation, not from truth. He frees us from doing only what is exterior, not from actual holiness. The commandments are not chains; they are scaffolding. Christ does not tear down the scaffolding — he finishes the building.

Sometimes we want to abolish parts of our past — our mistakes, our awkward beginnings, even our earlier devotions. Christ does not abolish our story. He fulfills it. None of it is wasted. It is all preparatory. Grace does not erase nature; it perfects it.

We can think of a bud in spring. If someone said, “The flower has abolished the bud,” we would smile. The bud has not been destroyed. It has become what it was meant to be. So too the Law in Christ. And so too the human heart in grace.