Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples: “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? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Opening Prayer: Lord, you cared enough about me to come to this world and reveal your plan of salvation. You cared about me enough to make me—through baptism—a temple where you dwell. You cared enough about me to pour the gift of your Holy Spirit into my heart, especially through the sacrament of confirmation. As I come before you today, I ask you for the grace to increase my faith in your love for me, to increase my hope in your hopes for me, to increase my trust and confidence in your wise and all-powerful providence as it guides me towards the fulfillment and fruitfulness for which I yearn.

Encountering Christ:

1. What God Sees: When God looks at sinners, even stubborn sinners, he doesn’t see unredeemable devils. Rather, he sees his beloved children who have gone astray. He never condones or ignores the sin, but sees the deeper identity of the sinner, who was created in his image and has the potential to become a saint by being open to and cooperating with God’s grace. God never gives up on any of us. God never stops loving us. He never turns his back on us. That is what Jesus is getting at by likening God’s love to the sun and the rain, gifts necessary for life, gifts that God never holds back from anyone, even from seemingly irreformable sinners. When Jesus exhorts us to “be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect,” he isn’t requiring us to somehow become immaculate. Rather, he is encouraging us to believe in this love God has for everyone, and to echo it and imitate it in our own lives. Loving our enemies doesn’t mean approving of their sins, it just means believing that God created them with a good purpose in mind, and that God’s redeeming grace is meant for them as well as for us.

    

2. Making Excuses: One of the most concrete ways we can love others as God loves us is by making excuses for them. We do this for ourselves all the time. If I happen to be late to an appointment, I naturally forgive myself, because I know that my tardiness is due to factors outside my control, or at least due to factors that are reasonable and acceptable. On the other hand, when someone else is late to an appointment with me, I have a very different reaction. I get angry, self-righteous, judgmental, impatient. I start throwing the other person under the bus and thinking the worst about them. Why the double standard? Why do I so easily make excuses for myself but so rarely make excuses for others? This is part of our heritage of original sin. Our minds are darkened and our hearts are twisted. Jesus is pointing that out in this passage. He wants us to recognize that everyone around us is, in God’s eyes, our brother and sister. We are meant to connect with others and give them the benefit of the doubt. That’s how we create an environment in which we can all live peacefully and prosperously. And if Jesus is commanding us to adopt this attitude, this point of view, it must really be possible for us to do so. Indeed, with his help and guidance, we can do many things that remain out of reach when we just try harder and harder with our own strength. As St. Paul put it: “I have the strength for everything through him who empowers me” (Phil 4:13).

    

3. God’s First Book of Revelation: So many times in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus uses phenomena from the natural world to illustrate his lessons. In this case, he points out how the sunshine and the rain reflect God’s attitude towards us, his goodness and his love. If even the sun and the rain can teach us about God and reveal him to us, then everything in the natural world simply must be able to do the same. What is more mundane, more everyday-normal-undramatic than sunshine and rain? St. John Paul II used to say that the Bible was God’s second book of revelation; the natural world was his first How attentive am I to God’s fingerprints in creation? How sensitive am I to the beauties and the harmony built into this natural world that God has given to be our home and our arena of spiritual growth? Postmodern culture often talks about the importance of preserving the environment, but very rarely talks about the spiritual meaning of the world as God created it. As we transition into summer, what can I do to better receive the instruction and inspiration that God wants to give me through his magnificent creation?

Conversing with Christ: Lord, you know me better than I know myself. You know that so often my heart is like a porcupine, bristling at others and isolating myself from them. I have so little patience with people’s flaws and failings, even with their idiosyncrasies! I am so unlike you, who make the sun to shine and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike. But I can see and taste the interior freedom that would come from keeping my heart open to others, even to those who disrespect me or don’t like me. I want to learn to be perfect as you are perfect. I want to spread your grace wherever I go. I want to embody in my life the goodness that continually flows from your heart. Please teach me and guide me, Lord, and make my heart more like yours.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will pay special attention to negative or accusatory thoughts and attitudes that come up in my relationship with other people. When I notice them, I will look up and think about the sunshine and rain that you pour out on the good and the bad alike, and I will ask you for the grace to “be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect.”

For Further Reflection: Summer Meditations

Fr John Bartunek, LC, is an author, speaker, and Creative Director at RCSpirituality, an online spirituality center providing a variety of resources for spiritual growth.

Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Matthew 5:38-42

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. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”

Opening Prayer: You have given me the gift of another day, Lord. I want to live it to the full! I want to give you glory by living my life abundantly! Teach me to pour my faith and my love into everything I do. Teach me to find you and your love in all the duties, encounters, and experiences of this day. I know you are always with me, thinking of me, leading and guiding me. As I come before you in prayer today, I humbly ask you to teach me how to see your presence and walk with you always and everywhere…

Encountering Christ:

1. Seeing Others as Christ Does: These words of Our Lord are so familiar to us. Maybe too familiar. “Turn the other cheek; go the extra mile; give to the one who asks…” These are behaviors that flow from a way of seeing other people. Our fallen human nature sees other people as competitors, threats, obstacles, tools. And so we are always ready to defend, to take advantage, to outsmart. Jesus is inviting us to adopt a different perspective. He wants us to drop our shields and take off our masks. He wants us to discover the dignity and the worth of other people, regardless of their flaws and sins. He wants us to learn to see others as he sees them—as children of God and saints in the making. When we see others in that way, we unleash new strength in our own hearts. We are able to choose how we respond to insults (being struck on the right cheek implied a back-handed slap, the sign of an insult in Israel at the time of Jesus) and injustices (Roman soldiers could legally conscript local citizens to carry their loads for a mile at a time in Roman-occupied Israel). We can look past the brokenness of this world and the ugliness of our fallen nature to see the face of a brother even in strangers and opponents. This is Christ’s invitation. He believes in us so much that he actually invites and equips us to follow his own example: “While we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). As we learn to do this, to live our relations with other people on the level of the deeper truth of our common human nature and Christian vocation, we will also learn what it really means to be blessed: “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt 5:7).

    

2. Being Freed from a Subtle Slavery: Some people have interpreted Christ’s injunction to “offer no resistance to evil” in a purely social way. This interpretation claims that we should never fight for what is true, good, and just. But that simply can’t be what Jesus really means. After all, Jesus also declared, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied” (Mt 5:6). Righteousness includes justice. Righteousness includes defending the defenseless against unjust attacks and exploitation. Righteousness includes pursuing and defending the common good by working for just laws, development, and peace. When Jesus invites us to “offer no resistance to evil,” he is not inviting us to ignore the forces of evil and to enable injustice. Rather, he is inviting us to master our self-righteous tendency to lash out at those who insult us on a person-to-person level. He is inviting us to leave behind the prisons of resentment and anger that we can be trapped in when people treat us unfairly. It is so easy to become a slave to anger in our personal lives. Jesus doesn’t want us to be a slave to anything. He wants us to learn to experience the “glorious freedom of the children of God” (Rom 8:21). Have I experienced that? Would I like to experience it? Learning to curb our instinctual defensiveness and to understand and accept others even when they may not seem to deserve it—this can break the cycle of vengeance and build bridges of redemption. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9).

    

3. Ahab and Jezebel: King Ahab and his queen, Jezebel, used lies and subterfuge to murder an innocent citizen, Naboth, and steal his family vineyard. That story from 1 Kings 21 vividly illustrates the destructive repercussions of selfishness. When we are self-centered, we tend to see other people as obstacles or tools in relation to whatever we want. Ahab was so self-centered that he became depressed when he couldn’t convince Naboth to sell him his family’s ancestral heritage. Though a grown man, his spirit was so self-absorbed that he behaved like a spoiled child when his whims weren’t heeded. Jezebel was even more self-absorbed. She not only coveted wealth and comfort, as Ahab did, but she reveled in the accumulation and exercise of power. For her, Naboth’s integrity and honor were a challenge. Was he strong enough to resist her machinations? She engaged the machinery of corruption and had him falsely accused and executed. She aggrandized herself and experienced a twisted pleasure by showing how powerful she was, regardless of the human and moral wreckage she left in her wake. We are all Ahab and Jezebel. We are all tempted to assert ourselves at the expense of others. Jesus is trying to convince us to follow a different path, a truer and more fulfilling path. When we treat other people—all other people—as the brothers and sisters that they truly are in God’s eyes, the world itself is transformed, and we become beacons of light and life in this world rather than agents of darkness and destruction.

Conversing with Christ: You call me to such a high standard, Lord. You invite me to give, to lend, to go the extra mile, to forgive, to return good for evil… This is how you lived. This is how you redeemed the world and gave us hope for reconciliation with God and for eternal life. This is how I am meant to live. I want to follow your call; I want to learn to see others—all others—as you see them. I want to learn to live with the strength and freedom that come from being anchored in this deeper truth. But it is not easy! I need your help, Lord. Grant me your grace, so that I may learn to be generous and good always and everywhere, not just when I feel like it. Make me your ambassador in this dark world, so that through me your light can conquer and illuminate many hearts.

Resolution: Lord, today by your grace I will become aware of myself whenever I feel anger or resentment and consciously choose to respond to those feelings and to deal with them as you would want me to, instead of being their slave.

Fr John Bartunek, LC, is an author, speaker, and Creative Director at RCSpirituality, an online spirituality center providing a variety of resources for spiritual growth.

Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Matthew 9:36 – 10:8

At the sight of the crowds, Jesus’ heart was moved with pity for them because they were troubled and abandoned, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is abundant but the laborers are few; so ask the master of the harvest to send out laborers for his harvest.” Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness. The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon called Peter, and his brother Andrew; James, the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew, Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddeus; Simon from Cana, and Judas Iscariot who betrayed him. Jesus sent out these twelve after instructing them thus, “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.”

Opening Prayer: Lord, I believe in you. I believe that you love me, that you are close by my side and that you will be walking with me throughout this day. I trust in you, Lord. I trust you more than I trust myself, because you are infinitely good and all-powerful. I love you, Jesus. I love you because you died on the cross for me, to save me.

Petition: Lord, help me to maximize the use of the talents you have given me.

Encountering Christ:

1. “Sheep Without a Shepherd”: Many people suffer because no one is there to assist them. They are abandoned and left to fend for themselves. Many times, perhaps, Jesus’ words are forgotten: “Whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Mt 25:40). Our own lethargy or omission can become the cause of the suffering of others. It is easy to think that it is up to priests and consecrated persons to provide for the spiritual and material needs of everyone. However, our neighbor is not just the responsibility of an ecclesial institution; he is also our responsibility. If we truly want to be who we say we are—Catholics—then we have to practice charity. “Charity is the greatest social commandment. It respects others and their rights. It requires the practice of justice, and it alone makes us capable of it. Charity inspires a life of self-giving” (CCC 1889).

    

2. “The Kingdom of Heaven Is at Hand”: It is easy to get caught up in our daily activities and lose sight of what matters in life. It is easy for us to think that the Kingdom of heaven will come at a later time, like the end of the world. However, the Kingdom of heaven has arrived with Christ’s arrival, and it is now. Christ came to proclaim that his Kingdom is already among us. As Christians, we are the presence of the Kingdom in this world, the leaven that has to transform it. Not only do we have to help ourselves get into the Kingdom, but we have a duty to remind our brother of it as well, and help him get there.

    

3. “Without Cost You Have Received; Without Cost You Are to Give”: God has given each of us talents to be used not just for ourselves, but for others. When we finish our life on earth, he will ask us, “What did you do with the talents I gave you? Your faith, your baptism, the sacraments, your family, your intelligence, your talents, your time…?” We are merely stewards of God’s gifts; but it is up to us to make the most of them during the limited time we have on this earth—for our own good and the good of others. 

Conversation with Christ: Lord, I want to use the talents you have given me as you want and for as long as you want. I know that they are not mine to use as I please. I know my time to use them is short, so help me to use them well.

Resolution: I will take action, in some specific way, to use my time and talents better, especially in order to help someone in need.

For Further Reflection: The Faithful Steward: A Lenten Retreat Guide on St. Joseph

Fr Robert DeCesare, LC, was born and raised in Maryland with three brothers and two sisters in a faith-filled Catholic family. He entered the seminary in 1993 and was ordained in 2003. He is currently the Assistant to the Admissions Director for Sacred Heart Apostolic School in Rolling Prairie, IN.