Real Access to Jesus’ Life

17 June 2025   Matthew 5:28-48

“So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Matthew 5:48

[This combines the readings for June 16-17. You’ll see why.]​

There are some very excellent reasons why it is reasonable to think that some of the moral commands of the Sermon on the Mount are impossible. “Be reconciled” – but what if the person you are at odds with doesn’t want to be reconciled, and isn’t sorry for having hurt you? Isn’t this just telling us to be doormats? “Always tell the truth” – even the Bible speaks with more than one voice on this one. Think Shiphrah and Puah, the Hebrew midwives of Genesis 1. Think Jacob and all his lies and deceptions, and he wound up being Father of Israel. “Don’t resist evil” – so, again, be a doormat for every thug or bully who comes along. “Be perfect” – well, you get the idea.

There are some excellent reasons to think that these commands are impossible.

Except Jesus did them all.

He told the truth, he didn’t resist evil, he loved his enemies and prayed for those who persecuted him. He also healed the sick, raised the dead, rose from the dead Himself. He was perfect, and today there are 2.4 billion Christians, comprising almost a third of the world’s population.

Yes, yes, Jesus had the advantage of being God, of having a complete and perfect divine nature. Of course that is a considerable advantage. Of course, we don’t have a divine nature, and that makes all those moral commands still impossible for us.

But…

What if we had access to His life – not metaphorical access, not “figure of speech” access, not “as if” access, but real access. What if we could have His life, His nature, in us, next to us, around us, through us, all day, every day. What if we could, quite literally, have His life in our hands every day, to use, and think with, and work with. Isn’t it possible that, over time, that would make us better, stronger, more powerful, more holy? And if we knew that just as His life was in us, it was also in all the other people at Church, if we knew for a fact that we never met them, but only ever met Christ in them, don’t you think we would treat each other better? And if we knew for a fact that Jesus wants to be in the lives of all people just as completely and literally as He is in us, don’t you think that would make us treat everyone better?

What if all that is not a metaphor, not a figure of speech, not “as if.”

Well, that is exactly what Catholics have been saying from the beginning. Every day, at every Mass, everywhere throughout the world, the very life of Jesus, everything that makes Him who He is, is put in our hands, to use, and think with, and work with, and live with. Could He have put His life in us in another way, maybe like Darth Sidious with bolts of energy flying from His fingertips? Of course He could have done that. But He didn’t – He was much more straightforward and non-threatening. “Here, eat this,” He said. Just like that. Still like that.

There are many excellent reasons for thinking that some of the moral demands of the Sermon on the Mount are impossible. And they are impossible, but only if we insist on living in the fairy land of metaphor and figures of speech. The real Jesus is still available. Really.