February 22, 1998 |
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7th Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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| Background: The demands of love are the primary theme of this section of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain. The ideal of love expressed here negates the Old Testament assumption that hatred of the evil person is acceptable. Followers of Jesus are to love as God loves and to be merciful as God is merciful. (In the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew uses the term perfect, an attribute humans could hope to achieve while mercy was an attribute of God) We are called to imitate this and God’s other attributes. The practice of the extremes to which Jesus calls us, though seemingly difficult, will be rewarded by God extending the same love, compassion and mercy to us. Our lives, like the garment, will run over with God’s love, mercy and pardon. |
read the padre |
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Story: Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a mother who was a master at manipulating her children with serious negative consequences for all of them as they grew to adulthood. Even then, this mom continued to stir up dissent among her children in addition to trying to alienate them from their father. After a time, the children, with the help of counseling, came to realize the games the mother played and severely limited their contact with her. Still, she continued to cause havoc in their lives, spreading stories about them to their children. In short, she was a very difficult person and, as she aged and was widowed, her negative behavior became even more intense. Two of her three children saw her only once or twice a year. Their lives were complicated enough with problems that they attributed to her. Their anger at her made it impossible for them to take responsibility for their own lives. Eventually, as she entered her 90’s and became somewhat disabled, the task of caring for her fell on the daughter who had, with the support of her husband, been able to come to some understanding of why her mother was the way she was. Still, until the day the mother died, she continued to deride this daughter for not doing enough for her. When the mother died, the two absent children experienced great guilt which made their lives even more complicated. Even though caring for her Mother had been an onerous task, her caretaker daughter experienced a sense of peace she had not anticipated. Perhaps the measure she had measured had finally been measured back to her. |
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