I'm sure that many of-you have heard the story of the man who was walking one afternoon near the edge of a cliff. At first he was very careful about where he was stepping, but then he began to daydream, he slipped on some leaves, and went right over the edge. But thankfully, after falling about 20 feet, he managed to grab hold of a piece of rock that was jutting out from the wall of the cliff. And there he hung, clinging for dear life to that rock. And he began to cry out, "help! Help! Is anybody up there"? All of a sudden he heard a voice that seemed to come out of nowhere: "yes, I am here, fear not." The man looked up, he looked down, he looked over his shoulder as far as he could and he said, "but where are you? Who are you?" The voice replied, "I am Jesus. Listen to me. Do as I say. Just let go of that rock, and I will catch you." The man stopped, he looked around again, he thought about it for a minute, and then he cried out, "is there anybody else up there?"

There is a tendency within all of us, whether we want to admit it or not, to be just like that man. He heard the voice of Jesus, but he had a great deal of difficulty placing his trust and confidence in what Jesus was telling him to do. Jesus made it clear to him that if he did follow his command everything would work out for the best and he would be saved, but apparently Jesus didn't sound convincing enough, because the man chose not to obey our lord's instruction. Rather he chose to seek his help, his safety, and his security in another way and from another source.

The same Jesus who spoke to the man in that story also speaks to each and every one of us. He does it primarily (not exclusively, but primarily) in two ways: in and through the sacred scriptures and in and through the teachings of the church. But of course, sometimes the commandments and instructions that Jesus gives us through the bible and the church are difficult to live out and even accept. And yet Jesus makes it very clear in the scriptures that if we don't take his commandments seriously as individuals and as a society, and make the effort to live them out every day, we will not have peace and security in our own hearts, or in our families, or in our society. And we even risk our eternal salvation, as he points out to us in today's gospel where he says, "unless your holiness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of god." There are many people today in the church and out of the church who teach that we can 'live by our own rules, and do whatever we want and still go to heaven. Folks, that is not what Jesus says,. And it is very important that we are clear about that.

When we hear a gospel like today's, we can be tempted to react like the man hanging from the rock: we can wonder -- does Jesus really know what he's talking about? Is he really telling me the best way to act? Is he really concerned with my happiness and well being? Can I really trust him? And that is a very understandable reaction, because what Jesus tells us here is exactly the opposite of what the world today tells us. For example Jesus tells us to beware of anger. His message there is: don't allow anger to destroy you, or your relationships with others, or your relationship with god. When you are hurt or offended make the effort to let go of your anger and resentment -- don't hold onto it. Don't allow it to fester inside of you. Work at forgiveness. Work at reconciliation. Folks that is not the message we are accustomed to hearing. The world today says if you are offended, get the person responsible and get him good. Make him pay. Make him suffer, and don't rest until you do. Jesus also warns us here against lust. Notice, by the way, he doesn't warn us against temptation. There is a difference between temptation and lust. Everyone is tempted. The greatest saints were tempted. Lust is something different. Lust refers to how we respond to temptation. Lust is the result of feeding the fires of temptation. And our society today unfortunately offers us many opportunities to feed the fires of temptation within us: pornographic movies and magazines, racy novels, certain songs that you hear on the radio, soap operas and much of what you see on prime time television. Our culture promotes just what Jesus warns us against in this passage. Is it any wonder, then, that there are so many sexually transmitted diseases around and that crimes like rape are so common. (in fact, I read a very scary statistic just this past week -- that one out of every six college women is raped during her undergraduate years.)

Jesus knows what is best for us. He created us , he designed us, and so he knows, better than anybody else, what we need to do and how we need to act, in order to live in peace with ourselves and with others., That is why he has-given us instructions and commandments like those we hear him speak to us in today's gospel.

I will close today with a story that I think makes clear just how important it is that we listen to Jesus and strive to shape our lives according to his word. Fr. Ken Roberts shared this story on his television program, which can be seen on EWTN, channel 37 each week. Fr. Roberts said that one day, a couple of years ago, he was saying a special mass for 300 little children -- god bless him. They were all 5,6, and 7 years of age. And since they were so young, he decided that he would have one reading instead of 2 or 3. And the reading he chose was very short, in fact it was just one verse of scripture. He said to the children, "pay close attention now. I want you to listen to what Jesus says here." And then he read john 15:12 where our lord says, "this is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you." Then he closed the bible and said, "ok, now I want someone to tell me what Jesus said.." Well at first they all shrugged their shoulders as if to say "I don't know." So Fr. Roberts read it to them again, and said, 11 "ok, now somebody tell me what Jesus said." And one little boy raised his hand and responded "Jesus said he loves me. " Fr. Roberts said, "that's right, but that's not all he said. 'What else did he say?" Well the poor man had to repeat it about 10 times before they all got it straight. Then he explained it to them, and had them say it over and over again so that they would remember it. First he asked the 5 year olds to stand and he said to them, "tell me -- what did Jesus say?" They all responded in one big chorus: "this is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you." Then he said to the 6 year olds "stand up and tell me what Jesus said and he did the same thing with the seven year olds. He even said that after the homily he stopped the mass several times to ask the whole group the question.

About 6 months later, (on Christmas eve), he said that he was unlocking the door to his car at a shopping mall when all of a sudden a little 5 year old boy ran up to him and yelled out "father, I know what Jesus said this is my commandment, love one another as I have loved you." And then he gave him a kiss and ran back to his mother. At that point the boys mother came up to Fr. Roberts and said, "Father, I want to thank you for saving my marriage." Fr Roberts said, "how did I save your marriage -- I never met you before in my life." She replied, "your right, I never met you, but my son did -- he was at that mass you said at our church 6 months ago. That was the day my husband I were going to tell jimmy that we were getting a divorce. We hadn't told him yet -- he was the youngest of our 5 kids. We wanted to tell him last because he was only 5. And so that day when he came home from church my husband and I sat jimmy in between us -- I held one hand, his father held the other -- and I said to him, 'you know, jimmy, mommy loves you an awful lot, and daddy does too, but mommy and daddy don't love each other anymore, and so mommy and daddy are going to have a divorce. Daddy's going to leave. You'll live with mommy, but you'll get to spend some time with daddy.':' jimmy squeezed our hands and said, "mommy, daddy, what did Jesus say?" My husband and I hadn't been at the mass and so we said, "we don't know, son, what did Jesus say?" Jimmy yelled out, "this is my commandment: love one another as I have loved you!" Well when my husband heard that he started to cry, and when I saw him cry I started to cry. And before we knew it, we were back in each others arms again. And we called off the divorce. Now things aren't always perfect between us -- even now six months later -- but we still love. And every time we fight or argue and jimmy hears us he always reminds us, "mommy, daddy -- what did Jesus say?