Sunday 19th February 2023 - The Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18/ Psalm 102(103)/ 1 Corinthians 3:16-23/ Matthew 5:38-48

Today we hear more from Jesus as by his authority as God he affirms and develops the defined rules of his people handed down to them from sacred scripture. The theme is about becoming more Godlike rather than submitting to human feelings. The Psalm talks of the compassion and love of God poured out on us rather than punishment for our sins and faults. In his continuation of the sermon on the mount Jesus refers to the first reading from Leviticus calling for us to be Godlike, saying, ‘You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’ This is an impossible request because, in this life, we cannot hope to be perfect as God is perfect, but it is the ideal that we should be striving for and the way we must constantly move away from the fallen human nature we have inherited from the very beginning of humanity. We were created in the image of God and it is that image that we should be working towards achieving once again.

In his teaching Jesus takes us beyond the letter of the law that can be so rigidly clung to and sets out guidelines for life that imitate the boundless love and compassion we receive from God. The saying an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth comes from the measured response to perceived injustices that people may have been victims of ensuring that legal recommence for a wrong did not lead to disproportionate punishment. To seek revenge for a perceived injustice is a very human trait which we see often today expressed vociferously through social media and the press. Perceived wrongdoing, even when it is historic, can be called out and no mercy or forgiveness is given. A person can be charged, judged and convicted by society in the court of popular opinion and punished for life without any hope of forgiveness. This is the human way of doing things and it is, thankfully, far from God’s way. I say thankfully because if God behaved in this way there would be no hope for many of us. We constantly need the mercy, compassion, and love that God is so willing to give us.

The love that God calls us to is not a love of allowing all things, it is a love of forgiving all things. The love, mercy and compassion of God does not give us a licence to behave how we wish in the knowledge that we can be forgiven anything. The examples that Jesus gives us are challenging and set out ways of living that in our fallen condition will be hard to live up to. The confidence we have that all our failings can be forgiven by God give us the drive to carry on trying to achieve the perfection Jesus calls us to. A parent knows that love for a child is not about allowing that child to do exactly what they want. It is about careful guidance so that the child can grow up behaving safely and justly for their own benefit but also the benefit of the society they are part of. This parental love often requires the word ‘no’ to be used and can involve some chastisement. A loving parent will always be there for the child accepting rejection when it comes, understanding bad behaviour but always ready to forgive and accept that child back when they return. This is the love God has for us His children, a parental love that never dies or diminishes, a love that guides and admonishes when necessary but is always ready to forgive and forget any bad behaviour.

In his call for us to reach the perfection of God, Jesus tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. As he pointed out it is relatively easy to treat those who love us with love it is quite another matter to love those that we perceive to be our enemies. However hard it might be the challenge is to love those who cause us pain and suffering. When Jesus was asked how we should pray he gave us the words of the Our Father. We say it often and it trips off the tongue easily, but do we pray it, really pray it? In the words, ‘forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us’, we are setting a limit on the compassion we are calling on God for. We are saying to God to forgive us in the same way as we forgive others. Do we forgive others as we should? Do we harbour grudges and resentments against others? Can we really forgive the actions of those we believe have done us great harm? However hard it might be this is exactly what Jesus calls us to do. Jesus, the definition of love and innocence, took on all our sins and was nailed to the cross for them. This is the sacrificial forgiveness we are called to give others not a simple exchange of apologies between family and friends.

In the extract from the letter of Paul in the second reading he reminds the people there that as Christians they have become temples of the Holy Spirit. That is what we are through our baptism and refusing to forgive as Jesus calls us to can lead to the damaging forces of dislike, resentment and even hate for others. These forces can destroy us as temples of the Holy Spirit, sacred temples of God, the destruction of which is a serious matter. Paul points out that our understanding of wisdom is very different to the wisdom of God, saying, ‘the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God’. Jesus calls us to a way of living that the world may consider to be foolish. If we are thought of as fools by the world that might not be a bad thing and may even indicate that we are getting something right. Our Christian faith calls us to be counter cultural which will mean that we appear out of step with the world around us. Christians should be viewed in this way, we live in the world, but we are not of the world, we are destined for an eternal life governed by the wisdom of God not the foolishness of humanity.

Let us try to live by the example set by Jesus, the precepts of his sermon on the mount and the prayer we say every day, trying always to forgive others in the same way that we ask God to forgive us.

God Bless, Brendan.