Feb 27 | Friday

When Jesus says that our righteousness must surpass that of the Scribes and Pharisees, what does He mean exactly? Because those guys knew the Law inside and out, and they seem outwardly to have followed it closely. How could we improve on that!?

There was one aspect of their religious life that fell short. God’s mercy was as far from their minds as their lengthened tassels, and with it the people to whom they might have offered it, including themselves.

To surpass the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees does not mean to know more about our religion. It is an invitation to fulfill it by being “perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect,” because He makes the sun shine on the good and the bad.

Mercy is God’s greatest attribute. It is the one that surpasses all the others, insofar as it is the fulfillment of the Law. +