The heart, Ramone. Don't forget the heart.

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Andrew
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Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. (Mt 5:17)

In today's Gospel reading (Mt 5:17-37), Jesus is saying that He has not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill the law. Part of the problem of being a Pharisee is that the law comes to be idolized (made into a god) and the law comes to be taken in a literal-robotic fashion. Indeed, in Mark 7:11, Jesus notes that the Pharisees have figured out how to bypass honoring mother and father by qorban (that is, giving money to God via the temple as a priority over giving to needy parents). And prior to Jesus, a husband might say (like many contemporary husbands), "hey, I looked, but I didn't touch!". Jesus blasts that excuse in Matthew 5:28 by saying, "everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart."

Jesus is deepening our understanding of the law. It's not merely following the letter of the law, but rather he is telling us that what is happening in our hearts also matters. In Matthew 22:37-39, Jesus summarizes the Ten Commandment into Two Great Commandments, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The commandments are not merely negative prohibitions about what not to do, but a positive command to love. And we're to internalize these commands into our hearts ("all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind").

But there is another problem here: Pelagianism. In our culture which stresses rugged individualism, we tend to think that we can do it all on our own. "Yeah, sure, Jesus died on the Cross for us two thousand years ago, but I can take it from here." But that's not possible. Take a look at two quotes from the Old Testament:

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and steadfast spirit within me.
(Ps 51:10)

A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you; I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. (Ezek 36:26)

Who changes hearts? It's not you or I. God changes hearts. It's our job to respond to the grace given us. Indeed, Psalm 51 is a prayer, "Create in me a clean heart, O God! Please, please, please!"