In loving our enemies, we can imitate the example of God.

 

 

Seventh Sunday in OT   C   2022

 

Last Sunday’s Gospel of the Beatitudes and this Sunday’s Gospel give us a radical profile in Kingdom Living – living by the Gospel values of the Kingdom of God.  Listen to the words of the Gospel:  “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

These Gospel injunctions go way over the top of reasonable expectations.  Jesus is saying:  Do to others as you would have them do to you and continue to do so to them no matter what they do to you.

This teaching may thin the crowd of Jesus’ followers.  It is a suggestion that goes directly against common sense.  Love your enemies…Give to everyone who asks of you…Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

This shocking advice is not social naiveté.  It is theological courage of a high order.  Jesus has opted for the attitude of unconditional love rather than the attitude of reprisal and revenge.  Jesus calls us to move beyond the human logic of reciprocity to the divine logic of superabundance.  We are invited to be immersed in the grace of God.

We are the disciples of Jesus who are called to Kingdom living following the values of the Gospel.  There are times for us as disciples of Jesus that following the law is just not enough.  Rather, we are to live immersed in the mystery of God’s love.

Example for us comes from with the law that makes it legal to have an abortion right to the moment of giving birth.  Quite bluntly, tragic law does not alter the sacredness of life.  This teaching of the Church is clear and unmistakable.

This tragic legislation does not change what Jesus Himself has taught:  All life is sacred.   When life is threatened in any way, whether by abortion, racism, violence, drug addiction or poverty, Catholics are called to speak   up and stand with those who are being oppressed.

 

 

 

 

What are we to do?  We the parishioners of the Church of the Holy Spirit must try to change the law but perhaps more importantly change the culture in which we live.  We do that by living lives that demonstrates our genuine respect for life through prayer, through supporting the agencies that support pregnant women with alternatives to abortion, and making our pro-life convictions known to our legislators.

No matter what laws are passed, we are to live our lives with Kingdom living, with Gospel living, with affirming that all life is sacred.  We need to begin with ourselves and with our families and with our parish family and affirm the dignity of all life as a precious gift of God. The conversion we seek must begin with ourselves.

Coming back to our Gospel, Jesus says:  Forgive and you will be forgiven.  Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing will be poured into your lap.  For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.  What does this mean?  Jesus is saying to us:  “Stop the crazy, endless slaughter of human life by stopping it in yourself.”

The conversion we seek must begin with ourselves.  As we seek to change the culture of death and abortion in society, we must root out within ourselves all that does not value the dignity of our own life, the dignity of the lives of those around us, and the dignity of all life.  May we value the precious, precious gift of pregnancy.  May we be supportive to the young families of our parish community.  May we value the life of each and every parishioner no matter how old or how young they are.

 And as we seek to have zero tolerance for the horrific sin and crime of sexual abuse, may we value the sacredness and dignity of our own sexuality and the precious gift of sexuality with all people.  With God’s grace, may we seek to rid ourselves of the temptation to pornography, the temptation to exploit the sexuality of anyone.

 

The gospel imperative is that we are to begin with ourselves and to be witnesses of the mystery of God’s love in the way we live our lives.  The voting booth is important and a beautiful exercise of our citizenship, but as the disciples of Jesus we are called to witness to a culture of love and life by the way we live our lives from day to day, from moment to moment.

What determines our response to a laws that support abortion?    What is our response to the Gospel demand that are to love our enemies, that we are to do good to those who hate us?  It is our inner relationship to our loving God that determines our response to whatever is happening.  In other words, circumstances do not control us.  We are to embody the love of God that is within us

We ask for the grace to be freed from compulsive judgmental  reaction in the face of conflict.  We are free to embody the loved and loving identity that is our core.  “Loving enemies, blessing those who curse you, praying for those who persecute you, lending to those who cannot repay” are general imperatives for proactive, graceful living.

Now Jesus is challenging us to take God as our frame of reference and our criterion for action.  He is asking us to look at life not from our narrow human perspective but rather from God’s own perspective.  God is kind and merciful to both the righteous and the wicked.  And so in loving our enemies we can imitate the example of God.

Our identity as the disciples of Jesus is to witness to the command of Jesus:  “By this all shall know that you are my disciples in your love for one another.”