Saturday of the First Week of Lent - March 7
Deuteronomy 26:16-19 Matthew 5:43-48
Matthew tells the story of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the beautiful Beatitudes and ending with Jesus’ directive to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us to be perfect as God is perfect. Jesus asks us to think about whether we can grow in His image if we maintain the status quo of only loving those who love us without making the effort to reach out to love those we find difficult.
Growing up, the enemies were easy to spot. They were usually older kids who tried to get in the middle of our playtime fun and take over our games. I can’t say I ever prayed for those enemies but, as I matured, I began to think of them more as friends than foes.
During the sometimes tumultuous teenage years, we may have perceived our enemies were our parents or teachers who held us accountable to become our best selves because they knew we were capable of more and pushed us in that direction. As age increases wisdom, we realized those we thought were adversaries were among our staunchest allies.
In later years, we might look in the mirror and see we have become our own enemy as the pressure to succeed has increased our ego and possibly decreased our commitment to the poor and the lessons from the Beatitudes. Hopefully, in the prime of our life if not before, we have hit the reset button
and have returned to the path God has set for us.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
In Matthew Chapter 5, God is calling us to be “more,” not perfect but striving to be more like God by rising above our imperfections to become more accepting, more loving and more charitable.
Q: Can we take Dr. King’s challenging message to heart in our lives? And how many times have we been changed for the better by serving as God’s eyes, ears and hands in the world?
Matthew tells the story of the Sermon on the Mount, beginning with the beautiful Beatitudes and ending with Jesus’ directive to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us to be perfect as God is perfect. Jesus asks us to think about whether we can grow in His image if we maintain the status quo of only loving those who love us without making the effort to reach out to love those we find difficult.
Growing up, the enemies were easy to spot. They were usually older kids who tried to get in the middle of our playtime fun and take over our games. I can’t say I ever prayed for those enemies but, as I matured, I began to think of them more as friends than foes.
During the sometimes tumultuous teenage years, we may have perceived our enemies were our parents or teachers who held us accountable to become our best selves because they knew we were capable of more and pushed us in that direction. As age increases wisdom, we realized those we thought were adversaries were among our staunchest allies.
In later years, we might look in the mirror and see we have become our own enemy as the pressure to succeed has increased our ego and possibly decreased our commitment to the poor and the lessons from the Beatitudes. Hopefully, in the prime of our life if not before, we have hit the reset button
and have returned to the path God has set for us.
As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
In Matthew Chapter 5, God is calling us to be “more,” not perfect but striving to be more like God by rising above our imperfections to become more accepting, more loving and more charitable.
Q: Can we take Dr. King’s challenging message to heart in our lives? And how many times have we been changed for the better by serving as God’s eyes, ears and hands in the world?
Comments
Post a Comment