The Spirit reaches the depths of everything
6th Sunday A
Cobh
15 February 2026
My friends,
Many leaders across the world are concerned, even fearful, for the future for the nations they lead. They feel an uncertainty – unsure of what will happen next and how and when powerful nations will react. An instability is being felt because it looks like the rule book for international order has been thrown out the window. Laws that were agreed between nations have been abandoned. The laws that are, were based on respect for sovereign nations, with a focus on co-operation and good bilateral relations.
The result is the ‘rule of the jungle’ – might is right. Human values like compassion and virtue are abandoned in the name of self-interest and greed.
The Readings today invite you to think more deeply of our understanding of law as found in the Word of God. In the Book of Psalms, there’s a long psalm dedicated to our experience of Gods Law when properly understood. Some verses form our responsorial psalm today. It is well worded in the prayer.
“Open my eyes that I may consider the wonders of your law
Teach me the demands of your statutes
And I will keep them to the end.”
Law in this understanding is more like good advice and wisdom for living well, rather than regulation or imposition.
“We have a wisdom to offer those who have reached maturity: not a philosophy of our age…”, St. Paul writes to the Corinthians… we teach what scripture calls: the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard… These are the things that God has revealed through the Spirit, for the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God.”
My friends, Jesus declared of himself, “Do not imagine I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I have come not to abolish them but to complete them.” Our everyday life has become regulated to an extraordinary degree – the E.U is being blamed for a lot of it. All of it is well intended but it can become a burden. While that increased regulation and rules go on in one level of life, on the other an extraordinary liberty has taken hold of so many areas of our personal lives. It has happened because of the belief that I can do as wish because this is “my life”, I can do as I wish and it is nobody else’s business – which is true on one level, but we also know the moral choices we make have an influence and impact on one another and society. As a society, we risk deluding ourselves if we think that the example of parents, teachers, celebrities and role models do not impact on the children and their understanding of life.
The focus of the Gospel are the Ten Commandments, the Old Testament guide to wholesome life built on respect for God and honesty in our relationships. Jesus endorsed their wisdom and guidance and deepened our understanding of them – to see in them something richer than rules or regulation but a path to choosing what’s right out of love, rather than obligation.
In this day and age, in our dissipated culture this is a very high bar. Despite impressions to the contrary, there are many who live by the command of love of God and neighbour. We are grateful for their fidelity and witness – to the most refined moral compass that humanity has been blessed with.
