Subject: Daily Gospel Reading - Tuesday, June 11, 2013
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| Weekday Gospel Reflection |
| Tuesday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time |
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Jesus taught his followers: 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect." |
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Matthew 5:43-48 - World English Bible |
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What does it mean to be perfect? To most of us, it means achieving an ideal state. Moral perfection means a life of virtue, an ongoing and consistent flow of ethical actions that revealed a strong character. But what does it mean to love perfectly? Jesus taught love meant universal charity. The proverb the Lord quoted combined Leviticus 19:18 ("Love your neighbor...") with a sentiment found in writings like the Qumran Manual of Discipline Ix, 21-26 ("...hate your enemy."). Popular attitudes qualified the notion of love, reducing it to nationalism. Love your fellow citizen but hate the foreigner. Jesus, however, commanded universal human charity based upon divine compassion. The Christian should return insult with kindness, persecution with magnanimity, simply because YHWH, the only true deity, treated everyone the same. Then, he compared the actions of the sinner with that commanded by the proverb; if there was no difference between the two, how could the Jew claim to be morally superior to the sinner or Gentile? The only possible way to seek any sense of exclusivity, any claim of moral superiority, was to treat others the way God treated everyone. To be perfect as YHWH was to love as the Lord loved, unconditionally. How do you balance your patriotism with your commitment to Christian love? |
| Daily Gospel Readings for the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time Studies for the Twelfth Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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