Love Your Enemies

                                                7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                                A cycle

22Reading 1 Leviticus 19: 1-2, 17-18

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 3: 16-23

Gospel. Matthew 5:38-48 (love your enemies).

In today’s first reading from the book of Leviticus the Lord urges Moses to tell the Israelites to by holy. Just what does “holy” mean. It certainly does not mean taking some kind of pious attitude. The Lord is not asking the Israelites to love Himself, but to love their neighbor.

            You shall not bear hatred for your brother and sister in your heart,…

            Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.

            You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

           

In today’s gospel our Lord seems to have Leviticus in mind as He follows up on his discussion of the beatitudes that we heard just two weeks ago. The Mosaic law of just retaliation stood for an advance in civilization and was more humane than other contemporary law-codes. The injury inflicted on a wrongdoer had to be proportional to his crime. “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”

Still, the Pharisees interpreted the command to love one’s neighbor as applying only to Jews—the pagans need not be loved. Jesus removes all limits on charity. After all, what good does it do?

            For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?

            Do not tax collectors do the same?

            And if you greet your brothers only,

            What is unusual about that>

In Christian theology there is no difference between the words “good,” “holy,”  and “perfect.” There is also no difference between “bad,” “evil,” and “imperfect.” We don’t want to think of ourselves as bad or evil, but most of us would readily admit that we are imperfect.

In today’s gospel Jesus tells his followers to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” His words today are a lesson in how to achieve perfection or holiness. He raised the ante. Where Leviticus said love your neighbor, Jesus expands the definition of what is meant by neighbor. He says “love your enemies.”

            When someone strikes you on your right cheek,

            Turn the other one as well.

            If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,

            Hand over your cloak as well,

Sometimes the words of Jesus seem so impractical. But if we reflect on our own experience, maybe we will begin to understand. As children if we cheated on an exam or found a way to avoid doing our work, what did we learn? Cheating did not hurt our classmates or our teacher, it hurt us. It also hurt all those who trusted in us.

In our families do vindictive or vengeful words do any good? How do they make us perfect? These words and actions hurt us even more than the people they are directed at. I know people whose close friendships were broken over a seemingly trivial word or deed. What good did it do them to lose a friend forever?

We know that the world of sports, business, and politics is extremely competitive, but what good will it do us to hate our opponents? When we do so, se become less, not more perfect.

In today’s second reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he tell us that if we only know what we are, we would look at things differently.

            Do you not know that you are the temple of god,

            And that the spirit of god dwells in you?

He says that there is a higher wisdom, a truer practicality than the world knows. Even our wisest leaders today seem to lack this wisdom. We see them being unfaithful to their loved ones. We see them cheating their friends as well as their enemies. And finally, we see them being led off to jail in handcuffs after being held up to shame and ridicule in the media and the courts.

            For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God…

            The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise,

            That they are in vain.

Fortunately, most of us will not be considered among the wise of the world. In our simple lives we can fly below the radar. Yet we all have to travel the road to perfection in our own way. In these weeks before Lent, our scripture readings are providing us with a road map.

Salt of the Earth

5th Sunday in Ordinary Time

In last week's gospel Jesus went up to a high place and preached to His disciples the now famous "Sermon on the Mount." In today's first reading the prophet Isaiah preaches a similar sermon:

            Thus says the Lord:

            Share your bread with the hungry,

            shelter the oppressed and the homeless,

            clothe the naked when you see them,

            and do not turn your back on your own.

Isaiah says that for those who behave in this way,

            your light shall break forth like the dawn,

            and your wound shall quickly be healed.

Our Lord says the same thing in today's gospel account from St. Matthew. Today we have the conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus tells his followers that,

            your light must shine before others,

            that they may see your good deeds

            and glorify your heavenly Father.

But our Lord warns us that our light can flicker and grow dim. Using another metaphor He calls us the salt of the earth, but cautions that "if salt loses its taste, with what can it be seasoned?"

In the next few weeks we are going to learn just what it takes to be a “light” to the world or the ‘salt” of the earth. From now to the beginning of Lent we are going to see that the Sermon on the Mount was not just words, words, words. We are going to see that the Beatitudes require hard work on our part. To put it another way, if we really want to be happy in this life as well as in the next, we will have to work very hard at it.

Why should this be so difficult to understand? Most of us are sports fans especially around Super Bowl Sunday. Is it possible that the two teams in last week's game got to the Super Bowl without hard work and sacrifice? We know that the best teams must have regimented work schedules. They must practice daily whether they like it or not. There is no way that a player or team can sit back and just hope to achieve success.

Some people admire Jesus because he was a great teacher. They like his sayings, the parables, and the words of wisdom found in lessons like the Sermon on the Mount. But they often fail to understand that Jesus came to suffer and die for us—to give up his life for us. Often they fail to understand that he called his disciples, including us, to a life of sacrifice and self-denial. Only if we die to self, will we find true happiness.

In today’s second reading St. Paul shows that he understood the message of the cross of Christ. He tells the Corinthians that “I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.” Instead, he says,

I resolved to know nothing while I was with you

Except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. 

Seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah issued a call to action that is as relevant today as it was then.

If you remove from your midst

Oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;

If you bestow your bread on the hungry

And satisfy the afflicted;

Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,

And the gloom shall become for you like midday.

We are well into the New Year and many of us have already forgotten our resolutions. Maybe they were trivial anyway. In the year to come we might want to do some hard work if we want to get to our own Super Bowl. 

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Reading 1 Isaiah 58: 7-10

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 2: 1-5

Gospel. Matthew 5:13-16 (salt of the earth).

Fishers of Men

                                    3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                   

The people who walked in darkness

have seen a great light;

upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom

a light has shown.

These words from the prophet Isaiah are repeated in today’s gospel reading. It is clear that the St. Matthew believed that Jesus was the light that Isaiah referred to, and since that time Christians have agreed with him.

It is not just that Jesus, the light of the world, will dispel darkness and gloom but that he will be a healer. In the words of Isaiah,

For the yoke that burdened them,

The pole on their shoulder,

And the rod of their taskmaster

You have smashed.

Practically the first thing that Jesus does when he sets out on his public mission is to call disciples to follow Him and assist Him in His work of healing. In today’s gospel we see Him walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee when He sees Peter and his brother, Andrew. They were fishermen and He says to them, “come after Me and I will make you fishers of men.” We are told, “At once they left their nets and followed Him.” Immediately after, he saw two other fishermen, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, and called them as well. Again we are told, “Immediately they left their boat and their father and followed Him.”

What strikes me most about this passage is how quickly they were converted. They did not require instruction or lessons in theology. They did not have to go through an extended course of study. They seemed to have asked no questions or made any inquiries about His background. From what follows in the gospels we know that these first disciples did not have a clear idea of who He was or what He was going to do. Like most of us when we embark on life’s great adventures, they did not know what they were getting into or where they would wind up.

There must have been something about Him that made them immediately give up their jobs and families to follow Him. There was something that led them to put their full faith in Him.

This passage reminded me of a book I recently read about Brother Andre, a recently canonized Canadian saint, who had as little theological knowledge and book learning as his namesake, Andrew, in today’s gospel. Andre was a poor orphan who received practically no education beyond what his mother taught him before she died when he was only 12. Thereafter, he had to work to help support himself and help out with his brothers and sisters. Eventually, a local priest, impressed with his holiness, asked the Holy Cross Fathers in Montreal to take him in. Since he did not appear to be very intelligent, he could not even be made a brother, but they gave him a job as doorkeeper or porter at their school.

To make a long story short, within a few years people were flocking to the school because Andre had gained the reputation as a healer. Some would come on crutches but go away walking on their own, leaving their crutches behind. Many of these crutches can still be seen today in St. Joseph’s Oratory, the magnificent church eventually built to accommodate all the pilgrims who wanted to visit him. When Brother Andre died in 1937 over a million people filed by his casket.

I mention Brother Andre because during his whole life he denied that he was a miracle worker possessed with great healing powers. Like Jesus, Andre often used material objects like oil and medals in healing people but he also denied that these had any magical powers. He had a special devotion to St. Joseph and asked all who came to him to pray to St. Joseph but even that he regarded as only a means for them to enhance their faith in Jesus, the light of the world. Andre always gave the credit for all of his accomplishments to faith in Jesus Christ.

In today’s second reading St. Paul does the same thing. He says to the Corinthians that it has come to his attention that some of them place their faith in him; that others believe in Apollos, or in Peter. He is shocked at this development.

Was Paul crucified for you?

Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?

A few years ago, in my own parish a beloved pastor had to retire after 18 years for health reasons. Tears ran down faces when the announcement was made. His farewell Mass and reception were packed. He had been a compassionate pastor as well as a wonderful homilist. He had a knack for involving people in every aspect of parish life. He was also a skilled and thrifty administrator who had taken the parish out of debt, and left it with a large surplus.

Nevertheless, I never heard him claim any credit for himself. If you asked him, I’m sure he would have said that anything he had accomplished was due to Christ working through him. The last thing he would want is for people to leave their parish community because he had had to leave. In today’s gospel we are told that Jesus is still here, “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness.”

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 Reading 1. Isaiah 8: 23-9:3

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 1: 10-13, 17

Gospel. Matthew 4: 12-23 (fishers of men).

           

Lamb of God

                                    2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

                                    

Stained Glass Window
Assumption Church
Fairfield CT*

Older Catholics will remember that before the Second Vatican Council there were only two major readings from Scripture at each Mass. There was the Epistle usually taken from one of the letters of St. Paul, and the Gospel reading from one of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. The same readings were repeated every year. Moreover, the priest read the readings in Latin with his back to the congregation. Only in the last century did he repeat the Gospel in the venacular while facing the people.

Besides allowing the use of the native language throughout the Mass, the Council sought to expand the selection of readings in order to put greater emphasis on the proclamation of the word of God, which became known as the Liturgy of the Word. This was done in two ways. First, a third reading was added to the traditional two. Now we have a first reading usually taken from the Hebrew scriptures or Old Testament. Then a second reading taken from the Epistles or Acts of the Apostles; and, finally, the Gospel.

However, the Church also introduced three cycles of readings, an A, B, and C cycle. That is, instead of the same readings every year, it would take three years before the readings would be repeated. The cycles are primarily differentiated by the gospel selections. In the A cycle, the gospel readings will be primarily from the Gospel of St. Matthew. In the B cycle it will be St. Mark, and in the C cycle it will be St. Luke. We will find readings from St. John interspersed throughout all three cycles.

Today is the second Sunday in Ordinary time. Ordinary time signifies that part of the church year which is not part of any particular feast, like Christmas or Easter. We might ask what happened to the first Sunday in Ordinary time? Well, it was last week but was called the Baptism of the Lord. Last week marked the beginning of the public life of Jesus with his baptism by John the Baptist at the river Jordan. Today, we follow up on that important event.

But let's begin by taking a look at our first reading today from the prophet Isaiah. The reading refers to a servant of the Lord who will derive his strength from the Lord, and who will be a "light to the nations," in order that the Lord's "salvation may reach to the ends of the earth."

Who is this servant? Is it Isaiah, himself? Is it the whole people of Israel? Is it some person in the future, say John the Baptist or even Jesus, himself? It is hard to say. Both Jesus and the Baptist appear in today's gospel account. Let's take a close look at what happens.

Representatives of the leaders of the Jews had approached John to ask him if he was the promised Messiah. John replied that he only baptized with water but that there was someone in their midst, “the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to loose.”

The next day the gospel account tells us that John “saw Jesus coming toward him” and said,

            Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

We have just completed the joyous feast of Christmas but the Church in its liturgical year does not dwell on the babe in the manger but immediately starts by confronting us with the whole purpose of the Lord’s mission. Jesus is going to sacrifice himself for us. He is the sacrificial Lamb who will atone for the sins of the people. From that point on sacrifice becomes the key element not only in our liturgy but in our lives.

Jesus is going to embark on a mission that will end with his crucifixion and death. Immediately after His baptism, the Evangelist tells us that Jesus began to call disciples to follow him. First Andrew and Peter, and then the rest ending with us. Fortunately, the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient for us. Most of us will not have to face torture and a cruel death. But if we call ourselves followers of Christ, we will have to give up, in our own little way, our own lives in the service of others.

Husbands will give up their lives for their wives, and wives for their husbands. Both will have to sacrifice for their children. When they grow older, the children will have to sacrifice for their parents. Scripture tells us that people without spouses and children are called to even greater sacrifice. Not one of us is exempt. To save our life, we must lose it.

We all love sports but don’t we admire those players who sacrifice themselves for the good of the team? Even baseball has a special play called a “sacrifice” where a player gives himself up to advance a teammate.

So in today’s second reading when St. Paul tells the Corinthians to be “holy”, he is not telling them to become plaster saints. He is calling them to a life of hard work and sacrifice in doing the work of the Lord. Just as Jesus did, he is calling us to become disciples, and “take one for the team.” 

Reading 1. Isaiah 49: 3, 5-6

Reading II. 1 Corinthians 1: 1-3

Gospel. John 1: 29-34 (lamb of God).

* Photographic image by Melissa DeStefano. Click on image to enlarge.