Seventh Sunday “Over the Year”
Holiness is not easy (Mt 5: 43-48)
Recently, I read this sentence. The Pharisee says: “If there are two righteous in the world, it is me and my son. If there is only one in the world, it is me. ”
I remembered her in reading the Gospel today about thinking life around me. Can we sigh: “Lord, when will we finally find the time we who are believers to read the Holy Scriptures, or at least the Gospels?” If we were actually reading at least the Gospels, there would certainly be fewer terrible cases, anger, misleading, denunciation and riots in families and workplaces. But we are like that Pharisee, and the believers only when something suits us, but nothing more.
Let us consider the words of Jesus Himself when He says to His disciples, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who are persecuting you, that you may be the sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he gives the sun to rise above evil and good, and sends rain upon the righteous and the unrighteous ”(Mt 5: 44-45).
Have we understood, or still grumbled, contradicted, not wanting to withdraw from our truth? The principle of equal retaliation still applies in the East, especially for death – murder, namely to fulfill the obligation of blood revenge. It is an unwritten law whose duty is to fulfill it, and they even say that it is imposed by God. Where? Why?
Jesus criticized the Pharisees that it was not written in the Old Testament that man should hate his enemy … but it was probably taught by the scribes. Love of the enemy is a purely Christian doctrine.
In the Third Book of Moses (Lev. 19:18), we read: “Do not avenge and do not hold anger toward your people, but love your neighbor as yourself! I am the Lord! ”
But what did people do? They explained that only the tribesmen had to be loved, not the others. Jews hated myths, today’s customs officers, and viewed them as the greatest sinners, especially because they served the hated Romans, often committing injustice in trade. But they weren’t all the same. After all, the customs also came to be baptized and asked what to do. He said to them, “Do not exercise more than they have given you!” (Luke 3:13). And behold, knowing the beauty of Christ’s teaching, he says, “Lord, I will give half of my property to the poor, and if I have deceived someone, I will return fourfold” (Luke 19: 8).
And they were hated tolls. It is appalling that we who have already known the beauty of the words of Jesus who have been proclaiming the Gospel for two thousand years, who have heard hundreds of sermons and encouraged, even after forgiveness from God himself in the sacrament of Atonement, are worse than the Old Testament Jews. We often love only those who love us. But Jesus asks, “What reward can you expect?” (Mt 5: 46).
We only salute our brothers, friends, whom we expect to give us our attention. Should we not rethink the words of Jesus: “What are you doing special? Do not the Gentiles do this either? ”(Mt 5: 47) And the last sentence of today’s Gospel is like a cry, the exclamation of the heart of Christ:“ So be ye perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect ”(Mt 5: 48).
Do we want to leave today so cold and indifferent, as if nothing had happened, as if we had heard nothing? After all, such a cold is only a dead person, and we live! After all, when we had the trouble of coming here to church on this day, we were surely playing something, we certainly came here to change something in our lives. Or do we want to wait forever, until the last exhalation, or the last blow of our heart, to wait until the other bends and not me ?! And while we’re going to be in the breast – I’m right, I’m right, I’m happy, I’m nothing ?!
Do you not think that it is we who are present here, and not those at home, outside, fulfilling these words of Christ ?! We have something to remedy, we have something to be grateful to Jesus for!
We can also learn from Saint Roses of Viterbo. Her life story will surely impress us. This wondrous and beloved girl deserves our touch, even though she was not a person of international significance. We can rightly call it holy because God has given her a special grace.
She was born in 1235 in Viterbo, in the central Italian province of Lazio. As a three-year-old, she resurrected her aunt from her mother’s side and thus performed her first miracle. When she first found herself ecstatic, she was only eight years old! Then, as a 10-year-old, Mary told her to put on the dress of a Franciscan tertiary. That year, Ruzena began her first mission directed against Emperor Bedrich II, the enemy of the Pope, who had illegally occupied Viterbo. She preached in the streets and squares, performing incredible miracles. No one dared touch this girl, who had to always stand on a rock for the audience to see. And the stones were growing under her feet to make it stand out. As a 15-year-old, she was expelled from the city because they considered it a dangerous element that threatened public order. She resorted to Soriano and there continued her fight against
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