7TH SUNDAY IN
ORDINARY TIME C
YEAR OF THE YOUTH
FEBRUARY 24, 2019
Jesus, I trust in you!
The people we love are those who
are good to us. The people we lend money to are those from whom we can expect
repayment. And these are most likely to be expected from everybody. Goodness
begets goodness. We are naturally attracted to what is pleasant. Jesus says:
“Even sinners do the same.”
The Lord in today’s gospel pushes
us more to the extremes of love. He tells us: “Love your enemies and do good to
them, and lend expecting nothing back.” The Lord challenges us to do more than
what is naturally expected of us. He tells us to go to the very extreme limits
of loving. He tells us: “You can do more than just loving those who are good to
you. You can do more than lend money to those from whom you can expect payment.
You can do more because you are greater than the ordinary. You are more than
what is just natural…You are children of the Most High who is kind to the
ungrateful and the wicked.” The Lord reminds us of who we are: We are children
of God. Therefore, we must strive to imitate God: “Be merciful, just as your
Father is merciful.” The kindness of God extends even to those who do not
deserve it.
2 Sundays ago, we heard of the
vision of God’s holiness which was given to the prophet Isaiah. “Holy, Holy,
Holy is the Lord God of hosts,” the cherubim sang unceasingly. We said that the
holiness of God means that he is unlike any of his creatures. His excellence
consists in absolute goodness. Here is where God’s goodness exceeds that of all
his creatures: his kindness goes beyond the limits of pleasantness. It extends
even to the ingrates and to the wicked. The Lord loves not only those who love
him. He loves even those who despise him. This we know is true for if he did not
love the wicked, then they would cease to exist. He allows the sun to shine on
both the good and the bad. He allows the rain to fall on both the saint and the
sinner.
And so, our duty as children of God
is to love as God loves. Jesus has proven that he is truly the Son of God. When
he was crucified, Jesus prayed to his Father: “Father, forgive them for they do
not know what they are doing.” To the repentant thief, he gave the assurance:
“Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus is merciful as his Father is
merciful. Now, he tells us to do the same: I give you a new commandment “Love
one another as I have loved you.” He loved us even though we are unworthy and
ungrateful. Therefore, our love becomes truly like that of the Father when we
forgive and when we do good to those who hate us. Love is our response to their
hatred.
St. Paul says in the 2nd
reading that the natural comes first, then the spiritual. Therefore, our love
as Christians must progress from the natural to the spiritual. We begin from loving
what is naturally appealing. Then, little by little, we strive to become like
Jesus. At first, we might feel it to be naturally repulsive to love our enemies
and to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us and pray for
those who mistreat us. But we try to defeat this repulsion by our self denial:
“Lord, help me deny myself by loving those who hate me.” Slowly, we become like
Jesus. We learn to forgive those who have offended us. We learn to love those
who hate us. Eventually, “we shall bear the image of the heavenly one.” To err
is human, to forgive is divine. We are called to that divinity for we are
children of the Father who is good even to the ungrateful and to the wicked.
O Mary conceived without sin, pray
for us who have recourse to thee!
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