(1 Kg 21:17-29; 51; Mt 5:43-48)<\/p>\n
**********************************<\/p>\n
The readings today are like a two-act play, conveying the message to love others as Jesus has loved us, by being as merciful as the Father is merciful.<\/p>\n
Elijah and King Ahab in the first reading mirror the events with Nabob and King David, after David also committed murder and stole the wife of Uriah. Like David, Ahab repents from the heart, God has mercy on him, and the certainly well-deserved punishment is deferred.<\/p>\n
The psalm is the famed Miserere, and acknowledgement of guilt and a cry for mercy, attributed to King David, whose experience of the unconditional love of God as forgiveness transformed him into the only true King Israel ever had.<\/p>\n
The Gospel acclamation and the Gospel combine to provide the second act: we are to love others the same way the Father loves us \u2013 perfectly and mercifully.<\/p>\n
What Jesus gives us in this gospel transcends all the laws of Old Testament that were largely based on the Law of Talion \u2013 \u201ceye for eye,\u201d \u201ctit-for-tat\u201d as we saw in yesterday\u2019s readings. We are to \u201cbe perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.\u201d The gospel of Luke puts it more accurately as a call to be merciful, just as our heavenly Father is merciful. That means to forgive from the heart over and over again (seventy-seven times) and to seek to understand the other rather than judge or punish the other.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the Los Angeles Religious Education Congress, John Allen Jr. spoke about the research he was doing for a new book on the persecution of Christians around the world. He mentioned an enthusiastic, vibrant Kenyan woman he met whose family was killed by terrorists. When asked how she could be so positive in the light of what happened to her family, she replied firmly, \u201cMy greatest treasure is my faith in Jesus, who taught us the way of forgiveness. They took away most of my family – there is no way I was going to let them take away my faith.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Eucharist puts us in intimate contact with Jesus, and his mercy. May our celebration empower us to live his new commandment: love one another as he has loved us, by being merciful as our Heavenly Father is merciful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(1 Kg 21:17-29; 51; Mt 5:43-48) ********************************** The readings today are like a two-act play, conveying the message to love others as Jesus has loved us, by being as merciful as the Father is merciful. Elijah and King Ahab in the first reading mirror the events with Nabob and King David, after David also committed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ordinary-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1169,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1168\/revisions\/1169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/archbishopsylvainlavoie.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}