The Scribes and Pharisees were very particular about keeping the _letter_ of the law, and prided themselves mightily on this kind of "justice." But Jesus Christ says that unless _our_ righteousness exceed theirs we shall not save our souls. Here, then, he teaches us that we must keep the _spirit_ of the commandments as well as the letter. And to show what he means by the _spirit_ of the law, he quotes the commandment which forbids murder. "Now, it is not enough," he says, "that you refrain from committing murder; you must equally refrain from the passion of anger--anger, that is, which destroys charity, and breeds ill-will, hatred, and revenge; for those who give way to these malicious feelings shall be arraigned at my judgment-seat side by side with murderers." Among those who heard him was St. John, his apostle; and St. John says: "He that hateth his brother is a murderer." Again, our Lord tells us that the spirit of the Fifth Commandment includes lesser sins than anger--that to call our brother contemptuous names, to provoke and irritate him by hard words (except, of course, in the case of just rebuke), is a grave violation of this law as he would have us Christians understand it. {316} The words which follow--addressed to those who were in the habit of going into the temple to lay their gifts before God's altar--apply with even greater force to _us_. _We_ come before God's altar when we come to hear Mass, and we come with the profession, at least, of offering a gift--that worship which is the tribute of our faith and love. There is one thing, then, which our Lord requires before he will receive our offering: that "our brother have" not "anything against us." In other words, we must be in perfect charity with our neighbor. If we have anything against _him_, we must forgive him there and then "from our hearts." If _he_ have anything against _us_, we must either have already done our best towards reconciliation and reparation, or at least be prepared and determined to do it at the very first opportunity.