Sixth Sunday after Trinity AD 2025

In today’s Gospel, Jesus says: “Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”

To find out what something is, it is worth asking what its opposite is. What is the opposite of righteousness? The opposite of righteousness is injustice, falsehood, and craftiness. So, living in righteousness means, first of all, that we must resolutely renounce all these evils.

However, living in righteousness greater than that of the scribes and Pharisees, does not consist only in abstaining from evil. No one is a good person just because they have done nothing wrong – a good person is known by good deeds. Jesus compares us and our way of living to a tree. A tree that does not bear evil fruit, but is simply barren, is worthless. The nature of a tree is to bear good fruit. Our nature as the children of God must be to bring forth the fruit of righteousness, to live in truth and sincere love.

But this is not something that will guarantee us entry into heaven. We cannot get there by our own strength, but only by grace. And although it may seem to us as if it would humiliate us, taking away our ability to boast about our own achievements, it is best for us, because we may know for sure that since the most precious ransom has been paid for us, the only-begotten Son of the Most High has given Himself for us, we have nothing to fear. We are “in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.”