Saturday of the First Week of Lent (February 24, 2018): Does God really want me to love that violent killer?

Today’s Readings:

Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Ps 119:1-2,4-5,7-8
Matthew 5:43-48
usccb.org/bible/readings/022418.cfm

USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
ccc.usccb.org/cccradio/NABPodcasts/18_02_24.mp3

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Matthew.

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 and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Good News Reflection:

On Ash Wednesday, when a 19-year-old boy massacred students and teachers in a high school in Florida, another wave of violence rode along with it. A wave that doesn’t get much attention from the press. A wave that demons love and gain strength from and push farther along. A wave that many good people, Christians included, have unwittingly contributed to. It’s a wave of hatred toward the enemy.

The enemy is the boy who killed. Have we loved him enough to pray for his salvation and for his healing from the wounds that bound him up in the spirit of violence?

The enemy is the person on the opposite side of the gun-control debate. On both sides, anger comes from fear and the understandable, desperate wish to stop the violence. Are we unleashing our anger against each other or are we uniting to get at the root of why there is so much violence today? Criminals will always be able to obtain guns and other weapons of destruction, no matter what the laws prohibit. The only real solution is a change in how people throughout society treat each other, reaching out to the hurting and troubled, caring about those who are loved the least, and taking seriously our calling to evangelize and carry the peace of Christ out more fully into our world. This change would be such a huge turn-around from the decades-long, downward slide of faithlessness and immorality and disrespect for life that it’s not a quick solution. It even seems impossible. But the moment we unite to begin this turn-around, the devil loses. Change begins.

The enemy is any person who opposes us because we oppose the downward slide of faithlessness and immorality and disrespect for life. Do we love such persons with the mercy of Christ and the patience of the Father Who waits to embrace them?

To love our enemies successfully and make our world safer, we need to be empowered by the Holy Spirit. “Come Holy Spirit and fill me. Come Holy Spirit and renew me. Come Holy Spirit, You have my permission to change me. Work through me to bring the peace of Christ into our troubled world. Amen!”

© 2018 by Terry A. Modica

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