Monday of the Twelfth Week in Ordinary Time
June 20, 2022
Today’s Readings
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/062022.cfm
Today, in God’s Lavish Mercy, our verse reminds us that God knows us completely, better than we know ourselves.
Alleluia, alleluia.
The word of God is living and effective,
able to discern reflections
and thoughts of the heart.
If we want to align ourselves with the truth that God sees and loves in us, there is a simple way. We can immerse ourselves in scriptural prayer, bathing our hearts in the Word. Within that wash of grace, our true selves are revealed and released into the gentle love and mercy of God.
As our Gospel indicates, when we deepen in that core integrity, we become more like God Who does not judge, but instead always loves. As Matthew said in a chapter preceding today’s:
Be perfect (compassionate)
Matthew 5:48
as your Heavenly Father is perfect (compassionate).
Prose – Rev. Vima Dasan, SJ
The word “perfect” represents the Hebrew word for “whole” or “integral”. This verse is conflated from Dt 18:13 where the word “holy” is used. It is the love of one’s enemies that assures the integrity of Christian morality distinguishing it from merely ethical morality. It is by this love of one’s enemies that we come nearer to the perfection of God’s own compassion. The special aspect of perfection in this verse therefore is not moral perfection so much as perfection in kindness, sympathy and generosity.
If someone does some good to me, I do him or her some good in return. This is conventional. But Jesus’ followers are not to remain content with conventional standards of goodness. Jesus expects us to go still further. Even if one does harm to me, I must do that person good in turn. It is only after saying, “If you confine your good deeds to your own kith and kin, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?” (Mt 5:47), that Jesus adds, “You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Why should the disciples of Jesus repay evil with good? Because, God himself sets us an example in this regard, by bestowing his gifts both on the just and the unjust. It is in this respect, we are to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
Vima Dasan, SJ – His Word Challenges
Music: Word of God Speak – Mercy Me
Lavish Mercy 