Scripture readings for Feb. 15, 2026, Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sir 15:15-20 Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34 1 Cor 2:6-10 Mt 5:17-37 OR Mt 5:20-22a, 27-28, 33-34a, 37
In a sense, it’s all been leading to this.
During these weeks of Ordinary Time, the Gospels for the past few Sundays have been giving us some of the most challenging proclamations of Jesus — key moments from the Sermon on the Mount.
This Sunday, he lays it all on the line. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets,” he says. “I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” He then shows us just what he means.
Again and again, he explains it: “You have heard that it was said …” then adding: “But I say to you…” He gives his audience an earful. Christ boldly clarifies what it really means to kill, to commit adultery, to take a false oath. It’s more than what his listeners probably expected. What he has to say is rigorous and demanding.
“Whoever is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment,” he says. “Everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart… I say to you, do not swear at all; not by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is his footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.”
In his own way, Christ was echoing John the Baptist — calling people to repentance, to conversion, to living by a higher standard than what they were used to. It packed a punch 2,000 years ago. It still does today — and for us here and now, it comes at just the right moment.
This Gospel helps set the stage for the next several weeks and, really, can serve as a powerful and provocative prelude to Lent. Yes, Lent. Get ready. It’s almost here.
Wednesday, three days after hearing Christ’s admonitions, with his words still ringing in our ears and burning in our hearts, we line up to have our brows marked and remember we are dust and begin to skip meat on Fridays and embark on the “campaign of Christian service” that prepares us, ultimately, for Easter.
It’s fitting, then, that this last Sunday before Lent offers us a lesson in what is expected of us as disciples, Jesus maps out the road we need to travel.
Feel overwhelmed? We should take heart from the first reading, and the wisdom of Sirach: “If you choose you can keep the commandments, they will save you; if you trust in God, you too shall live … Before man are life and death, good and evil, whichever he chooses shall be given him.”
Those words also lay out a prevailing theme of Lent. It can be a time of choosing, and of change. We begin the season every year being reminded of our death, making a commitment to conversion, going without simple pleasures so that we can give more of ourselves to others and to the Lord. The readings this Sunday call on us to think more deeply about choices we’re making. We could consider Christ’s words a rallying cry: “Think differently! Live differently! Choose wisely!”
It’s a message we all need to hear, and not just in the days before Lent. We could read parts of the Sermon on the Mount at any time and find ourselves searching our consciences and examining what we need to change, how we need to grow, where we need to redirect our lives. Or, to put it in a way that should sound familiar: What have we done? What have we failed to do?
Yes, it’s all been leading up to this. But the real question now: where will it lead us in the days ahead?
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Deacon Greg Kandra is an award-winning author and journalist, and creator of the blog “The Deacon’s Bench.”
