By FR. ROBERT ALTIER
Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A)
Readings: Lev. 19:1-2, 17-18
1 Cor. 3:16-23
Matt. 5:38-48
We all know that our Lord took what was written in the Law and brought it to a new and more profound level. For instance, He says several times in the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard it said,” then states what is written in the Law. He follows this by saying: “But I say to you.” In each instance our Lord requires of His followers a far more rigorous way of dealing with others. The rigor, however, is not toward the other, but toward the self.
For instance, in the Gospel reading today we hear that if someone wants your tunic, give him your cloak as well; if someone presses you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. We are no longer to love our neighbor but hate our enemies; instead, we are to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. This is very difficult and, seemingly, unfair. However, if we can do this, with God’s help, we are the ones who benefit the most.
How do we benefit? By growing in virtue. Our holiness can increase which means we become more Godlike. The more Godlike we become the more we become who God created us to be. In the first reading we hear God telling the Israelites that they are to be holy because God is holy. They are to be like God. Jesus, however, in the Gospel, goes even further and tells us that we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Naturally, we will object and say that we cannot be perfect. On the one hand, that is true. In fact, psychologists would tell us that perfectionism is a disorder. We are not talking about being perfect in an absolute sense; we are talking about perfection in a spiritual sense. It is possible to overcome sin and imperfections in this life and, therefore, to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
Still, the question remains: Why would we do this? We have already seen that it is the fulfillment of who God created us to be. But holiness, as required of the Jewish people, would have done that. Our Lord calls us to a higher degree of holiness because we are incorporated into Him. St. Paul tells us in the second reading that everything created belongs to us, but we belong to Jesus, and Jesus belongs to God.
So, we are not only made in the image and likeness of God, as every human person is, we are now made sons and daughters of God, sharing in the divine nature and the divine life. This means that we are called not only to fulfill who we were created to be, but who we are as new creations in Christ, as St. Paul calls us. We did not become a new creation on our own, nor are we expected to achieve such a lofty goal as being perfect like our Heavenly Father on our own.
St. Paul tells us in the second reading that we are temples of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. He goes on to say that the Temple of God, which you are, is holy. So, the holiness is already there in each of us, provided that we are in the state of grace. The Holy Spirit has been poured forth into our hearts to help us on this journey to holiness. Of course, we have to remember that where one Person of the Trinity is present, the other two Persons are also present. So, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwell within us.
How often do we call on God for help? How often are we even aware of His presence within us? When we look at our sins and imperfections, do we even want to get rid of them? Too many of us have made a deep friendship with our sins and we do not want them gone. We seem content to have God in our lives, but to have sin in our lives at the same time. If we belong to God and God dwells within us, then we need to try to eliminate sin from our lives. But this brings us to an even more basic question: Do we want to belong to God?
If we want sin, then we are saying, in essence, that we want to belong to Satan. We are all weak and we fall, but that is different from wanting the sin there. If we want the sin gone but we fall in weakness, God who is merciful will forgive us. But if we choose sin over God, then we have chosen to destroy the Temple for which, St. Paul says, God will destroy us. God or sin? You choose.
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