Dear friends in Christ, today is the 7 th in ordinary time year C. The readings of this liturgy challenged us to love, to forgive, to show mercy and compassion, and never judge anyone.
The first reading tells us about the man David, a God-fearing person, who respected king Saul as God’s anointed, forgave king Saul’s offenses against him and spared his life. David has the opportunity to take revenge against king Saul, but he decided to forgive him. He said, “today, though Yahweh delivered him into my grasp, I would not harm Yahweh’s anointed.” The scripture says, by the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil (Prov. 16:6). David’s sense of justice, spirit of forgiveness, and respect for Divine authority helped him to go beyond the retaliation which others expected him to do. David is an image of Christ and an example to us. If he can forgive his mortal enemy, we are challenged to do so.
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus commanded us to love, to forgive, to do good and to pray. They specify the kind of love his followers are expected to show toward their enemies. To love your enemy is a command which proposes a course of action contrary to human desire. Jesus invites those who follow him to repudiate their natural inclinations and follow him who is the way the truth and the life.
Christian ethics consists not merely in refraining from evil, but in actively doing good, not only to those who are our friends, but to those who hate us or have done evil against us. In other words, Jesus expects us to rise above the standard of this world and imitate the Goodness of God. It is a call to holiness, because Jesus wants us to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy (Mt.5:48). The Golden Rule is the foundation for all that Jesus was attempting to teach the assembled crowd. We are to treat all others just like we want to be treated ourselves. We will never be wrong if we let this rule guide our lives.
Another key element of the Gospel passage is mercy. We have a merciful God. Mercy means forgiveness. It means never judging – never condemning – Because we can never know the heart and soul of anyone else – or what has damaged them deeply. Certainly, we can judge and condemn immoral acts, ungodly acts, crimes against humanity. But we can never judge the inner spirit of another. Only God can do that. Consequently, as God continues to be merciful to us, so must we be to everyone else. Hence our love for others, must reflect the same kindness and mercy which God has shown to us. When we pray, our prayer should be not only for ourselves, friends, family members, and those that cares for us. We need to pray for those who have nothing to do with us, those that hate us for no reason at all, those that hurt us and cause us pains. When we pray for those who wronged us, we break that power of hate in us and unleash the power of love.
At every Mass we pray the “Our Father,” asking God to forgive us as we forgive others. Our challenge is to overcome our natural inclination to hate. To meet that challenge we need to ask God for the strength to forgive each other. Each of us needs to ask: Do I have anyone in my life I call an enemy? Is there anyone who actually hates me? Are there people who would really curse me? Is there anyone in my life who treated me badly? These things hurt us, and they are often difficult to forgive. However, we must forgive, because only forgiveness truly heals us. If we remember how God has forgiven us, it will help us to forgive others. Like David, we need to remember that we are God’s anointed children by virtue of our Baptism, and we need to avoid vengeance because judgement belongs to God.