In today’s Gospel reading, the Lord tells us, “Let your ‘Yes’ mean ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ mean ‘No.’ Anything more is from the Evil One.” Jesus does not want us to vacillate in what we commit to, for he himself is not one to do things halfheartedly. As Saint Paul says, “the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed to you . . . was not ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ but ‘yes’ has been in him” (2 Cor 1:19).
The full-throated ‘yes’ of the Son is a ‘yes’ in the Spirit to the Father and, by the gracious gift of God, a ‘yes’ to us, as well. The Son’s ‘yes’ of love is what impels him to take flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And by uttering such a ‘yes’ to the Father and to us, his creation, the Son also utters a full-throated ‘no’ to sin and evil and death. And so the Son’s ‘yes’ is also what impels him to offer his life for us on the wood of the Cross, condemning sin in the flesh (Rom 8:3).
Today, let us examine our own ‘yes’ to God and our ‘no’ to sin and death. We have already given them once before in a formal way, at our Baptism, when we (or our parents for us) renounced sin and professed faith in Jesus Christ. Let us pray that all our life be a ratification of those statements, made once for all.