Thursday of the Twenty-Third Week in Ordinary Time

Luke 6:27-38

Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful. Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Opening Prayer: Lord, you ask a lot of us in these lines of Scripture. As I reflect on your words, help me to see where I need to grow in your grace. I am listening, Lord.

Encountering Christ:

1. To You Who Hear: Our Lord challenged his listeners to live radical charity, and he challenges us as well. How difficult it can be to love, do good, and bless and pray for our enemies! Yet, Jesus began his statement by saying, “To you who hear.” Those of us who hear Jesus and know him realize that he doesn’t ask more from us than we are capable of giving. We say with St. Paul, “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me” (Phil 4:13). Corrie ten Boom, a concentration camp survivor, was asked to forgive a guard she knew who approached her after the war. She wrote, “It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do… ‘Jesus, help me!’ I prayed silently. ‘I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.’ And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.” Corrie sets an example for us as she trusted in the goodness of God who gave her the grace to do this difficult thing.

    

2. Follow His Example: Our Lord draws our attention to God the Father, who he says is merciful and kind to the ungrateful and wicked. “Be like your Father,” Jesus says. In fact, “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Jesus says in Matthew 5:48. But Jesus didn’t just ask us to be good like his Father—Jesus showed us how to do it. He gave us beatitudes, the parables, and his life, lived in union with the Father. “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me…” (Jn 14:11). If we want to know how to be like the Father, we need only look to Jesus.

    

3. Rewards: To love our enemies is difficult, but Our Lord encourages us by pointing out the reward for obedience. “Love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High…” There is no greater reward on earth or in heaven than to live as a child of God. When we exercise the virtues of mercy, forgiveness, and non-judgmentalism, we become happier people. Our lives are continually enriched by our personal relationship with Jesus. And our eternal reward will be beyond our wildest imaginings. “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him…” (1 Cor 2:9). 

Conversing with Christ: Lord, help me to keep my eyes fixed on you, especially when I am called upon to do the difficult work of forgiving someone. I want to believe that, by your grace, I build treasures in heaven with each act of love I share today.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will examine my conscience to see where I hold a grudge or make a rash judgment, and I will take a concrete step to reach out to that person.

For Further Reflection: Bishop Barron on Judgment and God

Maribeth Harper celebrated paying the last tuition bill for her kids’ college by writing a book for parents who have college-aged young adults: A Spiritual Toolbox: Tips for Parenting through the First Year of College. She is a wife of over thirty-five years, mother of four, and grandmother of twelve and counting.

Memorial of St. Peter Claver, Priest

Luke 6:20-26

Raising his eyes toward his disciples Jesus said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for the kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. But woe to you who are filled now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you, for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.”

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I need your grace to believe you are here with me now even if I don’t feel you. I know you are looking upon me with tremendous love, desiring to want to spend this time with me. I too want to love you by showing up just as I am. I give you this time, putting everything else aside to offer you my love, praise, and thanksgiving. How much I need your grace at this moment! I ask you to please send me your Holy Spirit to keep my heart still and at peace, so I can hear without resistance what you want to tell me through this time of prayer. I ask you for the strength to be able to respond with a generous heart.

Encountering Christ:

1. The Kingdom of God: The Beatitudes express our human experience as followers of Christ and the cost of discipleship. They inform our choices under the law of Christ’s Kingdom. As his disciples, we proclaim through our life and suffering the mysterious joy of being members of his Kingdom. “The coming of the kingdom of God cannot be observed, and no one will announce, ‘Look, here it is,’ or, ‘There it is.’ For behold, the kingdom of God is among you” (Lk 17:20-21). To be poor of spirit, meek, righteous, and merciful identify us as belonging to Christ’s Kingdom even in the face of sadness, violent opposition, social injustice, or whatever difficulty. Only with God’s grace and strength in our souls can we act in this way. This is how he established his everlasting Kingdom. When my heart is breaking because of the misery of so many today, I must not think that God has forgotten me. Instead, I thank God for the particular way he is asking me to build his Kingdom as his disciple. And I ask for purity of heart, spiritual strength, and interior peace.

    

2. Conflicting Contrasts: It is a challenging and daunting proposition. Who wants to be poor, sad, conflicted, excluded, or demeaned? We try to do everything possible to avoid or at least minimize the chance of finding ourselves in such circumstances. Jesus is not asking us to flee or seek out discomforts, but rather he wants us to realize that God always holds a brighter promise and eternal hope for what we endure. If we seek God first, we find that he is always calling us further. By way of apparent conflicting contrasts—poverty/riches; hunger/fullness; sorrow/laughter; and defamation/commendation—Jesus upturns the value we would normally consider desirable or pleasing. He is inviting us to embrace the truth that we cannot simply live to be happy in this life, but must consider living in a way that ensures our eternal life because “our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we also await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will change our lowly body to conform with his glorified body by the power that enables him also to bring all things into subjection to himself” (Phil 3:20-21).

    

3. Cultivating Blessedness: To be “blessed” refers to the fullness of life and meaning that comes from living in union with God. Jesus repeats it eight times here at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount. Although we can’t experience the complete fulfillment of all desire until we reach heaven, here on earth the growing sense of spiritual happiness that comes from a friendship with Christ is what is meant by “blessed.” Let us not be Christians daunted by the “woes” of lamenting what we falsely took for granted or held onto. The Christian hope for eternity is not in what we can bring along with us, but rather in the things we freely gave away, “only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward” (Mt 10:42). Cultivating blessedness is to rejoice in what we have to suffer for love of Christ while generously sharing his goodness with those in need. Which of the beatitudes is drawing me into a deeper union with Our Lord? How am I seeking blessedness in accepting what he is asking of me and sharing my gifts with others?

Conversing with Christ: Thank you, Lord, for inviting me to share in building up your Kingdom both here on earth and in heaven. I thank you for giving me the grace to see how I am to accept suffering, inconvenience, or discomfort with purity of heart and meekness, allowing your mysterious Kingdom to take shape in my heart. Thank you for giving true and lasting purpose to my life in all that I experience. So often I resist, complain, or ignore these opportunities out of cowardice and I lose perspective. Help me to be a true disciple of your Kingdom, always looking toward heaven as I strive to bring others closer to you through humbly and peacefully enduring whatever you ask. O Lord, grant me a meek and humble heart like yours! 

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pray for all who experience rejection, denunciation, or hostility, offering any inconvenience, especially for my Christian brothers and sisters who are persecuted for their faith.

For Further Reflection: Watch the conference “The Beatitudes: A Portrait of Christ’s Kingdom” from “A Kingdom Without End: A Retreat Guide on Christ the King.”

Lucy Honner is a Consecrated Woman of Regnum Christi and the Assistant Director of Campus Ministry at University Catholic, a community of students in the Nashville area who are serious about their faith. Since 1998, she has exercised her apostolate as a speaker, spiritual director, integrated health coach, and retreat director throughout North America.