Matthew 5:33-37.
Jesus said to His disciples: "You have heard that it was said to your ancestors, Do not take a false oath, but make good to the Lord all that you vow. But I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven for it is God's throne; not by the earth, for it is his footstool; not by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes,' and your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything else is from the evil one."
The Gospel of the Lord.
The law permitted an oath to verify one's veracity. Jesus condemned the practice of placing demands on God to act as a witness on one's behalf and tells his followers plainly they must always speak the truth, not merely when under oath. You may not ask God to act as your witness, nor swear by Heaven above (God's dwelling place) or by the earth (God's footstool) or by Jerusalem (the City of the great king, David) , or by your own head. Notice the gradations of the oath. IF one is not bothered by the loss of one's own head, or by Jerusalem, or by the earth, or by Heaven, or even by God Himself, then what good is your oath? The point is that if one needs an oath to tell the truth, then that one is not trustworthy. A really trustworthy person is one who tells the truth in every act he does and in every word he says. When I was a prosecutor, I would never state my personal belief in what I was saying: 1) because as a Government attorney, one was not permitted to assert one's personal belief and 2) because it was stronger to say what one was permitted to say, which is not that "It is my belief that such and such is fact" but, instead, that "It was the Government's position that such and such is fact." It is more powerful to live the truth and to have your words state the truth then it is to swear that such and such is the truth. And this is the point of today's Gospel. Live the truth and state the truth then your words will be believed because they are true not because you swear that they are true but because your own life attests to their truth.
In our time, we have had politicians step forward to receive communion or to obtain visits with the Pope when their public acts are in opposition to the teaching of the Church. In essence those acts are intended to bypass the teaching of Church and to demonstrate that the acts of those politicians are favored by God. In this Gospel that sort of calling upon God to witness is condemned by Jesus.
The letter of the law is death while the spirit of the law is life.
In sum, rather than abolish the law, Jesus calls for a higher form of law and behavior [than the Ten Commandments], one that goes far beyond external observance to an internal conversion so that the rationale and motivation behind the law will become the guiding force behind all our actions and our very way of life.
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