Jesus said to his disciples: “I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:20–22

The scribes and Pharisees were masters of the Old Law. Now that the Messiah had arrived, they were unwilling to go deeper and move beyond the Old Testament teachings that they often misrepresented. They preferred their approach to morality that had been with them for centuries. They did not want to change.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers a strikingly simple yet demanding image: “You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world.” He does not speak about what we should possess or accomplish, but about who we are called to become. This message speaks especially to us as our parish celebrates the Lunar New Year—a time of renewal, new beginnings, and fresh hope for the year ahead.

Today in the Gospel we hear the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. In the Old Testament Moses went up the mountain to receive God’s law and teach it to the people. Jesus is not receiving a law as Moses did, rather He is proclaiming a new law, the law of His Kingdom.

In Matthew’s Gospel today, we hear the first words spoken by our Lord as He begins His public ministry: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Up until this point, Matthew’s Gospel presented us with Jesus’ genealogy, His birth, the story of the Magi, the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt, the slaughter of the Holy Innocents, Jesus’ baptism, the preaching of Saint John the Baptist, and Jesus’ forty days in the desert.

In today’s world, we are constantly encouraged to seek attention and put ourselves at the center. Social media, celebrity culture, and even everyday conversations often reward those who are the loudest, most visible, or most admired. We feel pressure to be noticed, to gain approval, or to collect more “likes,” as if visibility itself were a measure of worth.

Jesus approaches John to be baptized.  John the Baptist pauses asking if it should be the other way around. Jesus reassures him that this is the right thing to do. As Jesus comes up from the water, the Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, rests upon Him. His heavenly Father speaks, “This is my Son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” 

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of King Herod, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star at its rising and have come to do him homage.”