Frederick, Maryland, United States - Daily Mass Reading & Catholic Meditation “The Word Among Us” for Tuesday, 17 June 2014

Frederick, Maryland, United States - Daily Mass Reading & Catholic Meditation “The Word Among Us” for Tuesday, 17 June 2014
Meditations: Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor[a] and hate your enemy.’[b] 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[c] do the same? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.
Footnotes:
a. Matthew 5:43 Leviticus 19:18
b. Matthew 5:43 not in the Bible, but see Qumran Manual of Discipline Ix, 21-26
c. Matthew 5:47 NU reads “Gentiles” instead of “tax collectors”.
11th Week in Ordinary Time
Love your enemies. (Matthew 5:44)
Can you picture finally getting to heaven, and the first person you meet is the one you liked least on earth? Imagine that! God loved that person and was calling him or her to perfection too. Or what about all the evil characters you’ve come across in the Bible—people like Pharaoh or Jezebel or King Herod? They don’t fall outside the scope of God’s loving intentions either. What God wants for you is what he also wants for your aggravating neighbor, as well as history’s worst tyrants—that they be “perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
Here’s another surprise: Your enemy can help you move toward that impossible-sounding goal of perfection. Here’s how. Jesus’ command to be perfect appears right after his explanation of how to treat those who hate us: “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (5:44-45). In other words, if you want to be perfect, begin by loving your enemies.
Are you thinking, “That’s too hard”? Of course it is! Even when the call to perfection is narrowed down to this starting-point, it is beyond human powers—or it would be, if Jesus hadn’t suffered and died for us. But with the grace he has secured through his death and resurrection, we can follow his example of perfect love and start doing what he commands.
Try to cooperate with that grace today. Instead of harboring spiteful thoughts, say a short prayer for someone who provokes you. Think about whether there are other people you should be loving more than you do—not “enemies” exactly, but people you tend to take for granted, look down on, or dismiss as undeserving.
Start with those you live and work with. Pay attention to the thoughts that cross your mind as you read the newspaper or see a homeless person on the street. Ask God’s forgiveness when you discover your failures. Open your heart to receive the grace for a more generous attitude. Take advantage of every big and small invitation to love, and the perfection of the Father and the Son will begin to shine out in you.
“Thank you, Father, for creating me for love. Help me to accept your grace and take another step toward the perfection to which you are calling me.” Amen.
1 Kings 21:17 Yahweh’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 18 “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who dwells in Samaria. Behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone down to take possession of it. 19 You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, dogs will lick your blood, even yours.”’”
20 Ahab said to Elijah, “Have you found me, my enemy?”
He answered, “I have found you, because you have sold yourself to do that which is evil in Yahweh’s sight. 21 Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall,[a] and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Israel. 22 I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah for the provocation with which you have provoked me to anger, and have made Israel to sin.” 23 Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. 24 The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field.”
25 But there was no one like Ahab, who sold himself to do that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. 26 He did very abominably in following idols, according to all that the Amorites did, whom Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel. 27 When Ahab heard those words, he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
28 Yahweh’s word came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, 29 “See how Ahab humbles himself before me? Because he humbles himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son’s days will I bring the evil on his house.”
Footnotes:
a. 1 Kings 21:21 or, male
Psalms 51:3 For I know my transgressions.
    My sin is constantly before me.
4 Against you, and you only, have I sinned,
    and done that which is evil in your sight;
that you may be proved right when you speak,
    and justified when you judge.
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity.
    In sin my mother conceived me.
6 Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts.
    You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.
11 Don’t throw me from your presence,
    and don’t take your holy Spirit from me.
16 For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it.
    You have no pleasure in burnt offering.
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