7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus intensifies the commands of the Old Testament. In Leviticus, God tells Moses, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18). Love opposes hate and God protects our heart from hatred giving us the Golden Rule. Jesus builds upon this command, challenging us not only to love our neighbor, but also our enemies. Loving our enemies as ourselves excludes revenge and includes reconciliation.
God reconciles with us. While we were sinners, Christ died for us. He reconciled with us out of love for us. Receiving reconciliation, Jesus commands us to seek reconciliation not retaliation.
Love comes from God. It does not come from our willing it. Love is a gift, and this gift must be received through faith. God’s greatest gift is his Son, Jesus, Who reconciles us with the Father. In reconciliation, we are face to face with the Father literally. Jesus, the icon of God’s love, reveals the Father’s face which is Mercy. Mercy exposes who we are. We too are icons of the Father, temples filled with God’s merciful love. In his mercy, Jesus unites Himself with us so we may taste and see true love. Divine Love reveals our inestimable value.
Experiencing how much we are loved, we too love freely. Being loved, we know our value, dignity, and worth. Affirmed by another, our ability to love strengthens us, even in difficult circumstances. Through the power of love, we do not faint or falter at love’s demands.
Experiencing divine love, our emotions secure us. They unite with the truth of who we are: temples of the Holy Spirit. In the Spirit, our actions express the love, joy, and peace, along with the kindness, generosity, and wellbeing we have. Our thoughts, speech, and deeds proclaim a faith rooted deeply in our goodness. Faith uniting us to God’s love, we foster deep, intimate, friendships with others. We see their goodness, value their presence, and share ourselves with them. The uniqueness of these friendships affirms not only our goodness, truth, and beauty, but also theirs.
Love sets us apart. It consecrates us to God. We fear not, because the Holy Spirit dwells within for we are the temple, the tabernacle, of God’s glory. Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, we have a power that “takes every thought captive to obey Christ” (II Cor 10:5).
Captive to Christ, we do not accuse, attack, or abuse another or our self. We do not damage, degrade, or disgrace another or our self. We do not humiliate, blame, or shame another or our self. We, in fact, take the evils we endure on account of love and consecrate them to God knowing He will bring good from our sufferings. Enduring sufferings out of love, we, as St. Paul tells us:
Lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.
Col 1:10–12
God dwells within our souls. We are his temples, the place where God tabernacles. His Spirit makes us his sanctuary, sacred unto the Lord. His Spirit inspires an obedience to love always seeking whatever is good, noble, right, pure, beautiful, admirable, and excellent to the praise and honor of God our Father! (Phil 4:8)
Love seeks this goodness. It seeks the good in ourselves. Realizing God’s love infuses his goodness into all of creation we uphold the goodness of the other too. Because our love seeks God’s glory, St. Augustine commands us to Love and do what we want. Glory perfects love. Glory radiates God’s goodness, truth, and beauty, but more importantly brings peace. Peace reconciles so every action, thought, or desire unites – never divides. St. Augustine understood this because St. Paul explained nothing separates us from God (see Rom 8:34). In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read
being publicly exposed to abuse and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated. . . . You joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.
Heb 10:33–34).
The better possession is God’s glory radiating within our being. Love conquers all, even the evils of life (Rom 8:37-39).
Perfect love casts out those fears and feelings, knowing our love comes from God. His love creates us; and being created from divine love inspires us to love with all our heart, mind, and strength. This is mature love, a perfect love in which we do what God commands not out of force or fear, but out of power and strength. Our strength and power come from Him; and as He commands us to love, even our enemies, He gives us the courage to do so.
To create courage, Jesus reminds us to love at all costs.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.Mt 5:44–45
This command to love differs from an emotional, sentimental, and affectionate love that today so many believe. Love wills the good of the other. Love seeks to bless the other person. Love wants the other to become more, to excel. True love is an action, a choice, and act of the will in which we do good to the other despite our feelings or fears. Doing good even to those who do not deserve it creates opportunities for reconciliation. Doing good to the other removes the grudges, bitterness, and envy we experience.
True love then upholds our own goodness amending what is imperfect. Opportunities arise for us to show mercy and kindness especially to those who display envy, rudeness, and boastfulness. We show mercy and kindness to others, not because of who they are but who I am. God’s child. I image the Father’s love. Image means I am the icon, the face of divine love to the other. Made from love for love, I love showing kindness and mercy even to those who return hatred for love.
St. Paul, defining divine love, tells us. Love endures. It is eternal. It is the only gift worth living for.
Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.
1 Co 13:4–8
Holiness, being set apart from false love, perfects our love. We do not bear hatred in our hearts. We do not take revenge, nor do we hold grudges and grumble against others. We love even though it brings pain. Love is painful for love includes sacrifice. We sacrifice our will for the betterment of the other. This is what Christ did. He sacrificed his will, praying not my will but your will be done, hoping that we too will imitate his love for us (Luke 22:42).
Experiencing divine love: having divine affirmation, affection, and admiration, we have the power to love even when it costs. Whatever love costs, God’s love multiplies our love for we no longer rely on our ability to love, but realize love is God’s gift of Himself to us. The more we spend our love, the more He gives us his love. The command to love then reveals his love. He loves us as He loves Himself and asks us to love ourselves and others as He loves us because
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy and faithfulness, keeping merciful love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.
Ex 34:6–7