18 February 2027 · Syro-Malabar Rite
Open in the Daily Word appAlso: Syro-Malankara Rite · Latin Rite · മലയാളം
“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37
Paul asks a hard question in today's epistle. If God chose Israel and entrusted them with “the oracles of God”, what happens when some of them prove unfaithful? “What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true.” This is the rock under the whole Great Fast. We come to these weeks aware of promises we have broken: baptismal promises, marriage promises, resolutions made last Lent and forgotten by Easter Tuesday. Our faithlessness is real, but it does not cancel God's faithfulness. He keeps his word when we do not keep ours. The prophet who sat among the ruins of Jerusalem could still say: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Paul then refuses a clever argument. Some said: if our sin only makes God's justice and mercy shine more brightly, why not sin more? “Let us do evil so that good may come”? Paul's answer is short: “Their condemnation is deserved!” The Church has kept this as a firm rule of the moral life: we may never do evil so that good may result from it (Catechism 1789). A lie told to save face, a bribe paid to get a good thing done quickly, a small dishonesty in the accounts for the sake of the family: the end does not wash the means. God's mercy is not an excuse for sin; it is the door out of it.
Jesus applies this faithfulness to our ordinary speech. The old law said, do not swear falsely, and fulfil the vows you made to the Lord. “But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.” We know this speech well in Kerala. “Ammayaane sathyam”, by my mother it is true; “daivathaane”, by God; a hand placed on a child's head to make a word believable. The very need to add an oath shows that our plain word is not trusted. The Church understands that Jesus does not forbid every oath, for an oath may be taken for a grave and just reason, as in a court of law (Catechism 2154). What he asks is that we become people whose word needs no support. “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” The same is true of the vows and nerchas we make to God in times of need: let them be few, sincere and kept. A fast that makes us more truthful has already begun to make us like God, whose yes is always yes.
Theme: “Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.”
God's faithfulness, the rule that we may not do evil for good to come, and the simple truthful word.
“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” Lamentations 3:22–23
“What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means!” Romans 3:3–4
Apply: Thank God each morning this week for one promise he has kept to you.
“Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Romans 12:21
Apply: Correct one small dishonesty in your work or accounts this Lent.
“O LORD, who may abide in your tent? Who may dwell on your holy hill? Those who walk blamelessly, and do what is right, and speak the truth from their heart;” Psalm 15:1–2
“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” Matthew 5:37
Apply: Go through this week without a single oath in your ordinary speech.
God's yes never fails, even when our promises do.
Let us become people whose plain word is enough.
Take-home resolution: Keep one neglected promise, and speak without oaths for the rest of the Great Fast.
Dear friends, Saint Paul asks: if some people are unfaithful, does that cancel the faithfulness of God? By no means! Although everyone is a liar, let God be proved true (Romans 3:3–4). We have all broken promises, but God has never broken his.
Paul also rejects a dangerous idea: let us do evil so that good may come (Romans 3:8). The Church teaches that we may never do evil so that good may result. A good end does not make a lie or a bribe right.
Jesus then speaks about our everyday words. Do not swear at all, he says, not by heaven, not by the earth, not even by your own head (Matthew 5:34–36). We know how often we say, by my mother, by God, to make people believe us. Jesus wants us to be so truthful that no oath is needed.
Let your word be Yes, Yes or No, No (Matthew 5:37). This Lent, let us keep our promises, speak plainly and truly, and become like our faithful God. Amen.
Children, Jesus says we do not need to say “I promise on God” when we tell the truth. If we always tell the truth, everyone will believe our simple yes or no. Will you try to tell the truth always this week?
Lord Jesus Christ, your Father is faithful even when we are faithless, and his mercies are new every morning. Free us from every lie and from the temptation to do evil so that good may come. Make our speech simple and true, our yes a yes and our no a no, and let our vows to you be sincere and faithfully kept. Glory to you, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever. Amen.
Truth is the thread of today's readings. Paul says that no human failure can make God untrue to his word. Jesus asks his disciples to be so truthful that they need no oath. God's faithfulness comes first, and ours is meant to resemble it. The key words are faithfulness and Yes.
Setting.
Paul has just told his fellow Jews that outward signs without obedience are not enough (2:17–29). The natural question follows: does this leave Israel with nothing? Paul is a Jew himself, and he will not allow that. He writes in the style called diatribe, a teacher's lively argument with an imagined objector, so the questions in this passage are not all his own opinions. Some of them he answers at once, and the longer answer comes in Romans 9–11.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“For in the first place the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.” (3:2)
Paul says this with pride and gratitude. Later in the letter he adds that “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (11:29). The Church teaches the same (CCC 839; Nostra Aetate 4).
“What if some were unfaithful? Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God?” (3:3)
Paul says “some”, not all. The question holds for every believer, and for Christians as much as for anyone.
““So that you may be justified in your words, and prevail in your judging.”” (3:4)
Paul quotes Psalm 51:4 in the Greek form, from David's great prayer of repentance. To admit our sin is to say that God is right.
“And why not say (as some people slander us by saying that we say), “Let us do evil so that good may come”?” (3:8)
Some people were twisting Paul's preaching of grace into this slogan. He will have none of it.
How the Church reads it.
The Church has made v. 8 a rule of moral life: one may never do evil so that good may result from it (CCC 1756, 1789). It is a sentence for hard decisions, when a wrong act seems to offer a good result. Because God's faithfulness does not wait on ours, the sinner can always come back.
Setting.
This is the fourth of the six “you have heard, but I say” sayings of the Sermon on the Mount (5:21–48). The saying sums up what the Law taught: do not swear falsely, and keep your vows (Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2; Deuteronomy 23:21). Jewish tradition itself was uneasy about careless swearing: Sirach warns against getting the habit (Sirach 23:9–11). Jesus takes this concern to its end.
Structure.
Key words.
Verse by verse.
“But I say to you, Do not swear at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,” (5:34)
The images come from Isaiah 66:1 (heaven as throne, earth as footstool). You cannot step outside God's presence in order to make a promise on the side.
“And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.” (5:36)
This is a small and humorous touch. We cannot even control our own hair, so how could we offer it as a pledge?
“Let your word be ‘Yes, Yes’ or ‘No, No’; anything more than this comes from the evil one.” (5:37)
The need for an oath shows how little we trust one another. Jesus wants a community in which a plain word is enough. James repeats the teaching (James 5:12).
How the Church reads it.
The Catechism quotes this passage and explains that the Church's tradition, following St Paul (2 Corinthians 1:23; Galatians 1:20), has not understood these words as excluding oaths taken for grave and right reasons, such as in court (CCC 2153–2154). St Augustine, commenting on the Sermon on the Mount, says that an oath is not a good thing to seek but may sometimes be needed because of the weakness of those who will not otherwise believe (in substance).
May a Christian take an oath in court?
Yes, for a grave and right reason, as the Catechism says (CCC 2154). St Paul himself calls God to witness. What Jesus forbids is the careless use of God's name, and the double standard in which only a sworn word counts as true.