Our Sunday Gospel readings leading up to Lent come from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount recorded in Matthew. They provide us with the finest teaching of Christ Jesus. They are an example of Biblical text that one will profit from comparing different translations. Something to keep in mind as you read or hear Holy Scripture is that you are not usually getting it in the native language it was spoke or written. I am not pointing this out to discredit Holy Scripture in any way. It is the Word of God written in human language. God is infinite and unlimited. Human language is finite and limited. This is why prayer with scripture reading is so very important. The Holy Spirit and the collective teaching of the Church, (called the Magisterium) will guide us to the truth if it is our prayerful intention to know the Truth. One of the problems of translation of Scripture is that contemporary languages are always changing in definitions. For example, those of you my age will remember that “thongs” where originally sandals, now called “flip-flops”. Thongs now refer to underwear. How about the word “gay”? It used to describe a happy state of being and now it refers to a particular state of sexuality. Imagine the confusion that could cause for a reader a hundred years from now! Fortunately, the original languages of Holy Scripture are what we call “dead languages”. That means they are no longer used by anyone for conversation today. The good thing about this is they never change in meaning or definition. This is also true of Latin, the official language of the Church. I have heard on multiple occasions Church Latin being scoffed at because it is a “dead language”. But that is exactly why it is important to keep it as the official language. It doesn’t change in its definitions. The contemporary “smoke and mirrors” trick of those who want to change the unchangeable by changing the definitions doesn’t work. But that does not keep some from trying anyway. Bishop Fulton Sheen once said, “The truth is the truth even if no one believes it and a lie is a lie even if everyone believes it.” Yours in Christ our Lord. Fr. Sid.