7th Sunday in Ordinary TimeLeviticus 19:1-2, 17-18 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 Matthew 5:38-48 The Gospel this weekend is this:
Mt 5:38-48 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. 40 If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. 41 Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow. 43 * "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors * do the same? 47 And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? 48 So be perfect, * just as your heavenly Father is perfect. The first reading is this: Lev 19:1-2, 17-18 1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them: Be holy, for I, the LORD your God, am holy… 17 "You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him. 18 * Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. The second reading is this: 1 Cor 3:16-23 Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person; for the temple of God, which you are, is holy. 18 Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool so as to become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, for it is written: "He catches the wise in their own ruses," 20 and again: "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain." 21 So let no one boast about human beings, for everything belongs to you, 22 Paul or Apollos or Kephas, or the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, 23 and you to Christ, and Christ to God. MEDITATION: The Trinity tell us today that They are ambitious about us. We have the capacity to love well… even if that involves forgiving some wrong that others may have done to us. In the 'Our Father' we ask God to forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. How forgiving is that to be? As Mae West (the actress) once said. “The good people are in heaven. The bad ones are em, em, em… all over the place”! Pardon is a vital aspect of our lives with God. Christ actually says that we cannot be any closer to God than we are close to our worst enemy! Also remember that there’s been no saint in history without a ‘past’ which had faults, nor is there a sinner now without a ‘future’ which may be very good! Forgiving people who do harm begins inside as a change of how one feels about another. But that's only a beginning. It should lead to us in some way expressing a newborn desire to be friends. Nearly all of us long for peace. Maybe some don't but those unfortunates are ill too! There's no peace without pardon and that's where the challenge is for us all. The call to love our neighbor isn’t necessarily a call to ‘like’ our neighbor. In fact if our neighbor doesn’t happen to be particularly ‘likeable’ to us, then loving him or her is even more admired by God. It’s good to hate the sin but it’s very wrong to hate the sinner! ‘The fool immediately shows his anger, but the shrewd man passes over an insult’ (Prov 12:16). A proud, arrogant, conceited person, is a poor victim of his own mistake. He or she needs help. There's plenty of evil in our world, however that's not because of 'bad' people but rather 'ignorant' people. So if you want to criticize my meditations, I won’t throw stones at you! ………….Dara. En Español: 7º Domingo: Lev 19:1-2, 17-18, 1º Cor 3:16-23, Mt 5:38-48 La Trinidad nos dice hoy que tienen ambiciones para nosotros. Tenemos la potencia para amar bien… aún si eso incluye perdonar algo mal que quizá nos han hecho. En el Padre Nuestro pedimos a Dios perdonar nuestras ofensas como nosotros perdonamos a los que nos han ofendido. ¿Cuánto perdón es necesario en eso? Como dijo una vez Mae West (actrice): “Las personas buenas están en el Cielo y los malos están… em, em, em… ¡por todas partes!” El perdón es una parte vital de nuestras vidas con Dios. ¡De hecho dice Cristo que uno no puede estar más cerca a Dios que a su peor enemigo! También recuerda que no hay ningún santo en la historia que no había tenido fallos y pecados en ‘su pasado’ y ¡tampoco hay pecador que no tiene un futuro con potencia de ser muy santo! Perdonarles a personas que te han hecho algo mal empieza con un cambio de como sientes por ellos por dentro. Pero esto es solo un empiezo. Debería llevarnos a de alguna forma expresar nuestro deseo renacido de ser amigos. Casi todos anhelamos la paz. Quizá algunos no pero tales pobrecillos están enfermos también! No hay paz sin perdón y allí está el desafío para todos nosotros. La llamada a amar a tu vecino no es necesariamente una llamada a que ‘te guste’ tu vecino. De hecho si tu vecino no es agradable en sí, entonces amarle es admirado aún más por Dios. Está bien odiarle al pecado ¡pero está muy mal odiarle al pecador! ‘El necio comunica inmediatamente su enfado, pero el sabio pasa por encima de un insulto’ (Prov 12:16). Una persona orgullosa, soberbiosa, que se ve ‘por encima’ de los demás, es una víctima de su proprio equivocación. Necesita ayuda. Hay bastante maldad en nuestro mundo, sin embargo eso no es a causa de personas ‘malas’ sino de personas ‘ignorantes’. Entonces ¡si quieres criticar mis meditaciones, no tiraré piedra a ti! Comments are closed.
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