Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 14, 2022 - Tuesday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 21:17-29 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 who 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 tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." [Matthew]
The Sermon on the Mount continues to make us squirm and want to ask, "What if.....?" This time, Jesus challenges us to "love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!" He is challenging us to be different from the culture around us. We are to go further than not seeking revenge (see yesterday's reflection), we are to love the one who has hurt us! That is a difficult thing to do. I hear occasionally in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, "So and so has really hurt me, or my children or my friends, do I HAVE to forgive and love them?" I tell them the short answer is YES. The last line of the passage for today is key to understanding why. The Greek word that is translated "perfect" in the passage really means "whole and complete." Jesus is challenging us to "be all that we can be!" And he is the living example to follow.
I am currently out in California to preach a retreat for priests. The theme of the retreat is "Measuring Ourselves," and Jesus is the one who gives us the example of how to measure ourselves. One way to do this - a difficult way - is to make a list of anyone we know whom we would consider an "enemy" or whom we think "persecutes us." I tell the person in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as a penance, to pray for that person or persons. I ask them to choose the prayers they are to say. This is one small step toward Jesus' challenge.
The unfortunate use of the word "perfect" in the translation can discourage people. I remind them that if they were truly "perfect" they would be God! It is dangerous "to make the perfect the enemy of the good!" We have to do the best we can and Jesus challenges us to find that "best" and do it as best we can! AMEN