To watch Fr. Joe’s homily for the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time: CLICK HERE!
Every weekend when we come to church, we hear the word of the God in the Scripture Readings. Readings that can encourage us… Readings that can raise our consciousness… Readings that can teach us… Readings that can challenge us.
This past Wednesday the first reading at Mass came from the Letter of St. James, where we heard, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only.”
Lent is upon us, Ash Wednesday is this week, it’s on Wednesday in case anyone was wondering what day it is on.
Lent might well be a very appropriate time to put into action what we hear, what we know is good for us as a person, family, and community of faith. People centered in God, in the Word of God… People who are blessed not only because they hear the Word of God, but keep it.
I am sure each of us can come up with at least one area of our life, where we know we could be more faithful…
For instance, Jesus says today in our Gospel, “I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Jesus knows that love, love that is and of God is not easy. It can be demanding, maybe unreasonable, and unfair.
What is often most challenging about today’s Gospel in not loving our enemies, but loving our annoying sister or bratty brother.
It is easy to love some nameless group of people we have little or nothing to do with.
What is hard is to love the people we live with and work with and go to school with.
To love our enemies is not just to declare a cease fire but to create and maintain an environment where reconciliation is always possible, where acceptance and welcome are assured even within our own families and households.
We have heard… We continue to hear… the Word of God shared with us every day… May we seize the opportunity of Lent 2020, to not only listen to and know the Word of God, but to live it.
To seize the opportunity of Lent 2020 to grow in being doers of the Word.