Category: Beatitudes

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Free To Love, Free To Live

Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (C): Luke 6:27-38

Yes, my guard stood hard when abstract threats
Too noble to neglect
Deceived me into thinking
I had something to protect  – from My Back Pages, by Bob Dylan

 

 

Love your enemies.

Offer the other cheek as well.

Lend expecting nothing back.

We are all quite familiar with these words, and with similar teachings of Jesus found elsewhere in the Gospels. We quote these words. We honor them in various ways. We do not often live according to them, however.  More often, our mottoes seem to be more like this:

Fight fire with fire.

An eye for an eye; a tooth for a tooth.

I have a right to everything that belongs to me. Continue reading “Free To Love, Free To Live”

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Salt, Light, and a City Set on a Hill

Fifth Sunday of Ordinary Time (A) – Matthew 5:13-16

As we continue to hear from the Sermon on the Mount, we once again hear familiar images coming from the mouth of Jesus: “salt of the earth”, “light of the world”, “city set on a hill”. Even people who aren’t members of any church will recognize these images. But what do they mean for us? How are we salt, or light, or a city on a hill?

Jesus says, “You (plural) are salt; you (plural) are light; you (plural) are that city”. So, who is this “you”? It is all those who follow Jesus: his disciples, his Body, his Church. All believers, together. And who are we as believers? We are the people, first of all, whom Jesus has just described in the Beatitudes, which came just before this passage.  Continue reading “Salt, Light, and a City Set on a Hill”

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Buying and Dying

Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (A): Matthew 5:3-12

Do I have a price? Or, can I (or you) be bought?

What I mean is this: is there any thing I want so much that I would betray some fundamental value in order to get it? We are all faced with this dilemma. We all feel the pressure to do this. It might have happened when we were children, when we had the chance to join one of the “right” groups in school – if we were willing to betray or ignore someone who had been a true friend to us. It might be the pressure we feel (at any age) with a group of people who begin to share malicious gossip about someone else. It may be a situation where we could advance at work by cheating or stabbing someone else in the back. Or, it might be the desire to blend in and not stand out from the crowd that keeps us from saying something that we know should be said.  Continue reading “Buying and Dying”