Daily Retreat 02/18/07
2007 Feb 18 SUN: SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
1 Sm 26: 2. 7-13. 22-23/ Ps 102(103): 1-2,3-4,8,10,12-13 (8a)/ 1 Cor 15: 45-49/ Lk 6: 27-38
From today’s readings: “The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.... The Lord is kind and merciful.... Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.... Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you....”
Love Your Enemies!
I’ve never heard it mentioned as such, but Christ’s command to “Love your enemies” has always come across to me as one of the strongest proofs of His divinity. It would be hard to even imagine any other such injunction that is so fundamentally foreign to our fallen human nature. As a principle of living, the words make no practical sense whatsoever, so the only reason people preach them and attempt to live by them is in virtue of the One who dared to teach us, with His words and example, to love our enemies.
If Jesus were not divine, such an absurd notion would have been sufficient to prove His insanity. If He were not divine, pragmatic realists would have quietly erased such nonsense from the historical record of His teachings. If He were not divine, He would have never dared to insist on such preposterous notions as conditions of discipleship, for, if He were not divine, all His own followers would have abandoned Him for such impossible expectations.
But, with the assurance of His divinity, Jesus does not hesitate to demand the impossible, because with divine assistance, what is otherwise indeed impossible becomes thoroughly possible. The love which bloomed from the dead wood of the Cross and even our own partial successes in loving our enemies are paradoxical enough proofs that only God Himself could have incarnated such a divine command!
1 Sm 26: 2. 7-13. 22-23/ Ps 102(103): 1-2,3-4,8,10,12-13 (8a)/ 1 Cor 15: 45-49/ Lk 6: 27-38
From today’s readings: “The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.... The Lord is kind and merciful.... Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.... Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you....”
Love Your Enemies!
I’ve never heard it mentioned as such, but Christ’s command to “Love your enemies” has always come across to me as one of the strongest proofs of His divinity. It would be hard to even imagine any other such injunction that is so fundamentally foreign to our fallen human nature. As a principle of living, the words make no practical sense whatsoever, so the only reason people preach them and attempt to live by them is in virtue of the One who dared to teach us, with His words and example, to love our enemies.
If Jesus were not divine, such an absurd notion would have been sufficient to prove His insanity. If He were not divine, pragmatic realists would have quietly erased such nonsense from the historical record of His teachings. If He were not divine, He would have never dared to insist on such preposterous notions as conditions of discipleship, for, if He were not divine, all His own followers would have abandoned Him for such impossible expectations.
But, with the assurance of His divinity, Jesus does not hesitate to demand the impossible, because with divine assistance, what is otherwise indeed impossible becomes thoroughly possible. The love which bloomed from the dead wood of the Cross and even our own partial successes in loving our enemies are paradoxical enough proofs that only God Himself could have incarnated such a divine command!
posted by FrPitstick | 2/16/2007
<< Home