"Ben detto, Nonno, ben detto!"
 
Growing up, my grandfather, my Nonno, would always tell me the importance of honesty: “Say what you mean, and mean what you say,” he would tell me over and over.

Our readings this week seem to reflect the wisdom in my grandfather's words. In our first reading (1 Kings 12: 26-32), we are told that before every person is “life and death, good and evil,” and whichever option we choose will be given to us. The reading tells you and me that we are responsible for our actions; we are accountable to God for saying what we mean and meaning what we say. The psalmist (Psalm 106) asks the Lord to give him discernment (understanding, wisdom) to not only observe the law, but to keep it with all his heart. It is a prayer to mean what we say and say what we mean.

In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus asks us to consider the weight and meaning of what we say, and the importance of consistency between our words and our actions: saying what we truly mean and living what we truly say.

Jesus is telling us that obedience to the Law, whether God’s or humankind’s, begins in the heart. What we say, what we do, and what we decide are all responses to the choices life puts before us, and the God who speaks to us in the depths of our hearts, the God in whose image and likeness we have been created.

While the scribes and Pharisees were obsessed with keeping the letter of the Law, Jesus taught the importance of embracing the spirit of the Law with love and humility. Christ speaks not of rules and regulations, but of the much deeper and profound values of the human heart. He preaches that we cannot be satisfied with merely avoiding the act of murder, but must also curb the insults and anger that lead to murder; we cannot be satisfied with just avoiding the act of adultery, we must shield our hearts from influences that may lead a person to consider committing an act of adultery; we cannot be satisfied with just fulfilling contracts to avoid being sued but must seek to become honest and trustworthy persons in all our dealings.  

By our compassion and caring for others, by our ethical and moral convictions, by our sense of awareness and gratitude for all that God has done for us, we do the great work of passing on Jesus’s teachings of love, reconciliation, and justice to a world overwhelmed by a flood of endless rules and restrictions that seem impossible to keep.

Jesus comes to teach a new approach to life, motivated by the recognition and celebration of the humanity we share with all men and women. Our favor in the eyes of God is not attained through the observance of laws, oaths, statistics, or rituals alone, but from the depths of our hearts that prompt us to make the decisions we make and to live the life we live. Jesus calls for accountability and consistency between our words and actions, our inward thoughts, and our outward deeds. Jesus simply says, " Let your 'Yes mean Yes,' and your 'No mean No.” Isn’t that what my grandfather used to tell me? “Say what you mean, and mean what you say?”  Ben detto, Nonno, ben detto!  Well said!  Words to guide us all.
 
Amen? Amen!