Following is the text of the meditation by His Beatitude Cardinal Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, on the 6^th Sunday of ordinary time A, dated February 15, 2026:

 

The entire Sermon on the Mount is permeated by an important theme, through which we are invited to read today’s Gospel (Matthew 5:17-37): the theme of evil.

 

The theme is more prevalent than one might think at first glance. We encounter it already in the Beatitudes, where there is mention of persecutions and insults. (Matthew 5:11-12)

 

We also find it in today's passage, which speaks of wounded relationships, adultery, scandal, and false oaths. (Matthew 5:23-36)

 

The theme of evil continues throughout the rest of the discourse: we hear it echoing at the end of the Lord's Prayer, where we ask the Father precisely, to deliver us from evil (Mt 6:13) and at the beginning of chapter seven, where Jesus speaks of the splinter and beam which prevent us from seeing ourselves clearly. (Matthew 7:1-5)

 

Jesus then speaks of destruction (Mt 7:13), of false prophets who are ravenous wolves, (Matthew 7:15) of trees and bad fruit, (Matthew 7:17-19) and of evildoers. (Matthew 7:23) Finally, Jesus' long discourse concludes with an image of destruction: “The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and buffeted the house. And it collapsed and was completely ruined.” (Matthew 7:27)

 

The theme of evil, therefore, is not a secondary topic in Jesus’ thoughts. The new life, inaugurated by the coming of the Kingdom of God, is a life that must in some way, reckon with this dimension of human existence, which affects everyone, in search of a new way to confront it and overcome it.

 

In this discourse, Jesus does not speak of evil in abstract terms: he does not offer a philosophical discourse, nor does he speak of it in general terms. Jesus looks at the evil that arises in the human heart and manifests in concrete actions, choices and words. Actions, choices and words that undermine relationships at their root, making relationships between people fragile and difficult.

 

Jesus also announces that he did not come to abolish the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them. The Law was given to Israel to preserve life and the fundamental relationships that constitute it, first and foremost the relationship with God, and the relationship between people. Jesus not only does not abolish the Law, but repeatedly emphasizes that external observance is not sufficient, and have no effect. On the contrary, he calls for a greater justice, that seeks out evil at the very place where it is conceived, in order to begin combating it immediately, before it takes hold of the human heart (‘I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven.’( Matthew 5:20)

 

In the antitheses phrases – “You have heard that it was said… but I say to you…” – which we find repeatedly in the passage, Jesus reinterprets the fundamental commandments that govern human relationships and shows what happens when evil is allowed to grow in the human heart: murder arises from anger, adultery from a possessive gaze, lies from manipulative words.

 

Evil begins like a seed, from something small that does not wish to arouse suspicion: a surge of anger, a look, a word… Yet it grows, until it destroys what is most precious to humans- relationships. And as it grows, it works in an opposite way, a movement of reduction: it reduces others to mere objects, and words instruments of manipulation.

 

In this way, even the Law is, in a sense, “reduced”: it is no longer the path that allows us to protect our relationship with God and with our brothers and sisters, but merely a rule to be observed to feel righteous.

 

But Jesus, as always, does not limit himself to revealing evil, to bringing it to light. He does something more: he begins a healing and redeeming process. 

 

He does not combat evil from the outside, but at its root, in the heart. The fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets is the gift of a new heart (Ezekiel 36), capable of observing the Law not out of legality, but out of love and in freedom.

 

To do this, Jesus points to a simple path, which we find in these words: “But I say to you.” (Matthew 5:22, 28, 31)

 

This is not a commandment demanding more of us, but an invitation to return to the source, where mankind hears once again the truth to which he is called, that of God's original plan for humanity, which the Beatitudes have once more revealed.

 

And there, we choose once again the beauty of good relationships, of truthful words, and of a contrite and undivided heart.

 

+Pierbattista