Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 18, 2019 - Tuesday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 8:1-9 and Matt 5:43-48]"You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those wo persecute you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect." [Matthew]
The Sermon on the Mount challenges us to an unusual love. There is nothing unusual about loving those who love us. What would be unusual is to love someone who hates you and is an enemy. Like the teaching on revenge from yesterday's passage, this one seems to go against our gut feelings. An outward cordiality is not enough. Jesus goes after what is inside us as well as our outside behavior. He himself was and is the model. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
The challenge to perfection is a challenge to integrity of character. I tell people, "If you were perfect, you'd be God." We are not called to some kind of abstract standard of perfection. We ARE challenged to endeavor to make our hearts speak through our actions. If our actions belie what we are feeling and thinking, there is work to be done on the inside! What makes the Sermon on the Mount different from the Torah is that external behavior is not enough. The heart and mind must love as well. It's not easy. God is merciful. But the challenge is still there. AMEN