Seventh Sunday Gospel A

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
· Jesus forbids the misuse of Mosaic civil law to justify private vengeance.
· For his followers, Jesus rejects any retaliation as a way of life.
· Eventually, he will state that the proper response of a disciple is love not hate or revenge.
· In each of these sayings, Jesus is setting a new standard for his disciples, one that will lead to union with God.

 When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles.  
· At the time Roman soldiers reserved the right to recruit and compel their Jewish subjects into temporary service. Simon of Cyrene, for instance, was forced under this right to carry Jesus’ cross.
· Jesus instead stipulates generosity beyond any obligation, again out of love.

Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
· Again, give out of love, because God has been generous to us.

"You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?
· To the Jews of his day, all non-Jews, that is Gentiles, were considered enemies because they did not worship the one, true God.
· Jesus includes all as neighbor, even their Roman overlords.
· In other words, As God invites the unjust to respond to him through the evidence of
his love, so the disciples of Jesus must be the bearers of the same love toward their enemies.

 So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
· We are to follow the lead of our Heavenly Father in his treatment of each person. He treats all with mercy.
· We will never be perfect in this life but we can strive for perfection, following the directions of Jesus for his disciples.
· This is a call to holiness. Be holy for the Lord is holy. There is no relationship with God unless one is striving to be holy, striving to love as God loves.

The Book of Ecclesiastes says there is a time to die and a time to live.  If Easter is a time of resurrected life, then Lent is a time of death to sin. What sins must be put to death in us, if the resurrected life of Jesus is to bear new life in us?

Many times when we go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we rattle off our grocery list of sins. What is missing? Two things! We have not identified the root of our sins and we don't have a spiritual game plan to begin to overcome our sins.

It is like the person who has weeds in his yard and his mode of operation is to mow them down every week. He doesn't get rid of the weeds, only exasperates himself. He needs to attack the core of the weed.

Have we identified the core of our sins? Do we have a spiritual game plan that is concrete and attainable in uprooting these sins? This is the grace we need to ask for before Lent and the action we need to embark on during Lent.

In little over a week we will begin our annual Lenten pilgrimage of preparing to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus. Look over the past Lents. Were we any different for a period of time after Easter that on Ash Wednesday? That's the purpose of each Lent: metanoia which means change. 

When Jesus preached repentance and the invitation to believe in the Good New of salvation, he was calling for a more permanent change in life. It was not just for forty days and then "business as usual". 

One of the formulas I like using on Ash Wednesday is "Will you turn away from sin and believe in the Gospel." This turning away from sin is a call to focus on an area of our life which Jesus is calling us to uproot so that his love and life may make a difference. What is that area in your life? This is the time to ask Jesus to reveal to you his desire for you this Lent. What does he want you to work on?

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined,he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested: "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied: "But I can see you and that's all that matters."

In those times of darkness in our life, we don't see the Father with arms outstretched ready to save us. All we see is what looks like being hopelessly alone. But the grace of the Father tells us he is there, ready to embrace us, if we but leap into his arms. It is truly a leap of faith not into nothingness but into the All in All that matters. If we hesitate, the darkness will truly envelope us. If we trust, the light will break through.

But there is another type of wisdom, which comes from God. This wisdom is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, given by God to us in Baptism and renewed in Confirmation. What is this wisdom? Paul says the Spirit reveals to us the depths of everything, even the depth of God. This gift of wisdom enables us to know and to see things as God does; in other words, we are able to know in a given situation the will of God.