Greetings on this the Thursday of the Tenth Week in Ordinary Time
Readings: 2 Cor 3:15—4:1, 3-6; Ps 85:9ab and 10, 11-12, 13-14; Mt 5:20-26
Notes: Jesus wants us to rethink everything.
If we take our gospel portion in reverse order, Jesus said:
- Forgive your brother.
- Offer true worship of G-d having given the forgiveness you seek as well.
- Pay back your brother what you should not have taken from him.
- Settle the disagreement between you.
- Don’t call people names (example: you fool).
- Don’t get angry.
- And don’t kill them.
The moral code Jesus describes directly, antithetically, links Forgiveness to Murder.
This is what the god of this world has blinded our minds to: forgiveness and murder are connected through a series of neglect (sloth) and missing the mark (sin).
Moreover, Jesus places the peace between us as at the highest importance – even before offerings and worship!
Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
The Path of Forgiveness or the Path of Murder.
Let us not be blinded to that basic fact.
Current events: Duane Owen’s execution is set for June 15 at 6 p.m. His crimes were reprehensible, and the victim’s families rightly have deep pain and thirst for justice. For them an insurmountable standard of forgiveness in the ordinary sense. It is difficult to demand of them the standard of forgiveness without invoking a spiritual or moral standard that they may or may not have any connection to or formation in, personally. I bring this example up because it is current news (today) and to reflect on how very difficult it is to impose a moral standard on others when the standard is antithetical to their belief or way of being. I pray for the victims, their families, the State and the perpetrator.
It is through example that any change can occur.
Civil Law is the weakest link in moral theology. Example is the strongest.
What is meant by fulfillment of the law is not the demand to keep it exactly as it stood before the coming of Jesus, but rather his bringing the law to be a lasting expression of the will of God, and in that fulfillment there is much that will pass away (https://bible.usccb.org/bible/matthew/0).
The kingdom of God is not a matter of eating or drinking, but of justice, peace, and the joy that is given by the Holy Spirit. Let us, then, make it our aim to work for peace and to strengthen one another.
(LOTH, Wk II, Thursday morning).
Fence around the Torah: http://deacongerrypalermo.blog/2020/10/25/hanging-ten/
First Reading
The god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, so that they may not see the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Responsorial
The glory of the Lord will dwell in our land.
Kindness and truth shall meet; justice and peace shall kiss. Truth shall spring out of the earth, and justice shall look down from heaven.
Gospel Acclamation
I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples:
Go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry