OMELIE / Omelie EN

19 feb 2023

19/02/2023 - 7th Sunday in O. T. - year A

19/02/2023 - 7^th Sunday in O. T. - year A

Reading 1 LV 19,1-2.17-18 Psalm 102 Reading 2 1COR 3,16-23 Gospel MT 5,38-48

God gives Moses the task to tell the people something that nobody would have ever expected. God has given His commandments not because of a controlling nature, to be obeyed and so have a firm control over the people of Abraham, but so He can be recognised through them by all the peoples on earth. They who obey Jesus become like Him, so they become able to love and spread this love the way He does. So the commandment which sums up all commandments is truly the following: “Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy”. And then He explains how the holiness can be developed: we will not let in our heart hatred nor vengeance, and not even resentment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. The love for the neighbour, even the neighbour who is capable of hate, is the very way to show holiness, the holiness of the God who guides us.

Jesus develops this teaching which is already sketched in the book of Leviticus, and He provides three examples. He uses the slap, te theft and the unreasonable request. There are people who might hit you, who want to be unjust towards you by defrauding you even with the support of the law, who asks of you a big effort for free. The above actions naturally produce in the man’s heart strong feelings.

What happens instead in the disciple’s heart? He wants to be the living proof of God’s love, so a carrier of His holiness, and therefore he does not let his heart be changed, he doen not let himself be influenced by this evil. The devil would love for you to become evil like him, but the Lord wants instead that you make use of these situations in order to show His holiness in you. They are precious occasions you can use to prove God’s goodness. So the people who see you will notice one side of the wisdom and selflessness of the Father’s love.

Jesus gives us other pieces of advice: “Pray for those who persecute you”. The heart of a son loves the way the Father loves. The Father loves good and bad people, loves them so He can attract their hearts to Himself and transform them. In this way we can and we are asked too to love without, first of all, making sure we are considered and loved in return. We must love because we are children of God, not in answer to other acts of love!

Saint Paul’s note is fully in line with these teachings: we are temple of God and the Spirit lives in us. Every action of ours will be in line with this reality and it will show this. We cannot reason the way the world does, which tells us we need to act cunningly in order to avoid being taken advantage of. Our cunning is not about becoming great in the world, but being lambs, living the meekness and goodness in every situation, even when the lambs find themselves among wolves. We will not have one foot in two shoes: either we strive to be liked by the world and we are in competition with it, or we go about our task of showing the Father’s heart and the beauty of His love to the point we might even go through the cross at men’s hand ourselves.

Let’s repeat today’s prayer, which sums up in a few words our very own desire to be truly renewed: Oh God, who have revealed in your Son stripped and humiliated on the cross the strength of love, open our hearts to the gift of your Spirit and break the chains of violence and hatred, so in the victory of good over evil we may become witnesses of your Gospel of peace.