Monsignor Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his reflection on the  Gospel of this Sunday, February 8, 2026,   entitled: “Through the Spirit, God reveals to us the deepest things.”

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Sirach 15:16-21: “Before man are death and life”

Psalm 118: “Blessed is the one who does the will of the Lord”

2 Corinthians 6-10: “Through the Spirit, God reveals to us the deepest things”

Matthew 5:17-37: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, but I tell you…”

What would Jesus think of our way of life and our actions in relation to the law? His words reveal the great tension his proposals provoked among the different groups of his time. Some joyfully declared that the entire law was superseded and that now one could live freely, leaving behind the law given by Moses and the prophets. Another group clung to the law and understood Jesus as a law-abiding observer who demanded that his new followers adhere strictly to all the prescriptions and the meticulous interpretation the Pharisees made of the law. Did Christ want to abolish the law? No, Christ wanted to find the true meaning of the law and give it its proper value. He did not propose the law for its own sake, but rather to go beyond it, to the inner self and its relationship with God and fellow human beings, to discover the great value of the law. He summarizes his position by affirming that the law must be based on “true justice”; otherwise, it loses its meaning. The laws, initially established to protect the weak and care for the children, suddenly became an unbearable burden and a pretext for submission and slavery. Thus, instead of giving dignity to the person, the law enslaves them.

Christ proclaims true freedom of heart, not a license that justifies the most irrational actions under the guise of the law. Christ looks into the human heart and instills in it a new vitality and a new law based on justice and love. He speaks to us of relationships centered on recognizing each person as a child of God and heir to the Kingdom. Gone are the formalism and legalism that objectify people and subject them to the yoke of laws based on the whims of a few. And after focusing on this justice, which must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, Christ presents us with several cases where the law is distorted—cases that are not relegated to the past or forgotten, but are very much present today. He does not provide an exhaustive list of cases where the law is broken, but simply draws our attention to examples that occur every day, and often we are unaware of the contempt we show others. The passage focuses us on respect for the life of the person, on the sincerity of relationships, and on the value of the word.

It begins with the most basic principle: respect for human life. This is far removed from what we hear daily in the news, both in our country and around the world: senseless acts that shatter the harmony of the community and destroy the lives of innocent people. Every day we wake up startled, wondering what new massacre has occurred or if someone we know has been attacked. The scenes are constantly repeated on the news, and for every savage act we thought was the worst, a new one is added, more vicious and with worse methods of torture. People who seemed so sane and transparent—public servants, humble workers—are revealed as swindlers and cruel criminals. What is happening to our humanity? How far are we capable of going? Some propose the death penalty or harsher punishments as a solution, but as long as we fail to recognize ourselves as brothers and sisters and as children of God, as long as humanity or power remains the sole measure of the law, the lives of the young will continue to be disregarded and innocent lives will continue to be taken with impunity. Christ goes further and asks us not only to respect life, but also the dignity of the person. We cannot live in hatred, insult, and denigration. When we hate, we ourselves lose the very essence of our identity.

Christ also speaks about sexuality and divorce. We cannot see the other person merely as an object of pleasure. As long as relationships are not founded on the acceptance of the other, with all their dignity and all their rights, they will remain superficial, exploiting people and leading to the extremes of abuse, human trafficking, or sexual slavery. Too often we fall into the dynamics of the world of pleasure and power, forgetting that conjugal love is meant to be exclusive, total, and unconditional for life. What Christ proposes is not an absurd conception of the person where sexual relations are hidden or cannot be discussed; rather, he proposes the true demands of love that arise in people who truly love one another. Our society needs people who know how to live, witness to, and defend the project of indissoluble love, who go beyond the pursuit of irresponsible pleasure. Young people who dare to live the fullness of a faithful, responsible, and committed love.

Finally, Christ speaks to us about the value of our word. If in those times our word needed to be reinforced with oaths, now it needs documents and paperwork to make it credible. But even then, we find accommodations, subterfuges, fine print, and broken promises. Lies and corruption pervade relationships. And Christ demands that we give our word its true value. He, who is the Word made flesh, the Word made relationship, asks us to be consistent with what we say. No laws can overcome lies once they have taken hold of our hearts. We need to discover our intimate relationship with the truth and defend it always and everywhere to be faithful to our own calling.

A heart divided by hatred, lies, or pleasure cannot present itself worthily before God. It is falsifying the relationship because it does not offer its whole self. Let us examine how we are living the laws: are we merely fulfilling them, are they truly within us, or are we walking through life with “two hearts”—that indigenous expression describing the cruel reality of those who live divided and have no harmony with God, with their brothers and sisters, or even with themselves? What remains in our hearts today? Let us continue meditating on the words of Jesus: “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Lord, grant us to discover the paths of truth, love, and our own dignity, which will lead us to live in your presence. Amen.