Commentary on the Gospel of

Victoria Sanchez - Madrid Teacher and Mary Elizabeth Sperry - Bible Diary 2023 - Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc.

Read: The message of Exodus is clear: we are called to live in holiness because we are the children of a God who is holiness itself. Paul reminds us that the Holy Spirit dwelling in us makes us the temple of God. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes it clear that holiness is grounded in reflecting God’s unconditional. self-sacrificing love.

Reflect: Saint John Paul II spoke often about the universal call to holiness. Holiness is not reserved for clergy and religious or to those few special people who are widely recognized as living saints. Instead, each of us is called to holiness in our own state in life and in our own unique circumstances. 

The pursuit of holiness will not be easy. It means conforming our will to God’s will, to giving more than is requested, to meeting hatred with love. to meeting evil with goodness, and violence with peace.

Of course, we cannot do this on our own. We can only become holy through the gift of God’s grace, given top us through the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and fills us with the gifts we need to become holy.

Pray: Dear Father in heaven, send us your Spirit so that I can be more like you, holy in everything I do.

Act: Look for an opportunity to forgive rather than escalate disagreements.

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"Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" 

For Jesus the rejection of violence can also entail the renunciation of a legitimate right; and he gives some examples: turning the other cheek, giving up one's clothes and money, accepting other sacrifices. But this renunciation does not mean that the demands of justice are ignored or contradicted; on the contrary, Christian love, which manifests itself in a special way in mercy, represents a higher realisation of justice. What Jesus wants to teach us is the distinction we have to make between justice and revenge. Distinguish between justice and revenge. Revenge is never just.

What Jesus asks us today is to love our enemies, pray for those who hate you and for those who persecute and slander you (Mt.5,43-44), but let us not be afraid, because those who believe in Him, our sign will be to love our enemies, because Jesus always forgave and even died forgiving (Lk.23-24), this is the way to follow from our Christian condition, love is the only strength to transform an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of the enemy by responding to hatred with hatred, because by its very nature hatred destroys, but love, by its very nature creates and unites. Prayer for our enemies is the great strength we have to fulfil this precept, so that the miracle of forgiveness can take place. 

Christian love is very demanding, because it has no boundaries. But it is impossible to return good for evil if prayer does not accompany us.  It is the great strength we have, without excluding the word of God and the frequency of the sacraments. A prayer that can remind us of the attitude we should have towards our enemies is called the "Prayer of Peace", attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, which begins with the prayer: "Lord, make me an instrument of peace; where there is hatred, may I put love.

Prayer: Lord our God, we need your love, patience and generosity to achieve the model of perfection that you want to teach us.

 

"HAPPY SUNDAY TO ALL".

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