7th Sunday of the Year (C)

Liturgical readings

1 Sam 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
Psalm 103
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Luke 6:27-38

"For the measure you measure with will be measured back to you."

God's commandment of love is at the heart of Jesus' teaching in Luke 6:27-38. In this passage, we get to know who God is and who we are as human beings. God is kind (Lk 6:38) and He's a compassionate father (Lk 6:36). Those who accept the message of Jesus are called to reflect that same mercy in their lives. All the faithful are called to "love their enemies" (Lk 6:27-35), for Jesus Himself taught by His example on the Cross that to love one's enemies is "to forgive them for they did not know what they did". On our part, we too must seek forgiveness for the times we also "did not know what we did" to our own enemies. It is a great grace to forgive; and it comes from Christ in the Sacraments.

The whole history of the Christian faith shows many that some have really followed Christ to the Cross. From apostolic times and through the years when persecution of Christians was at its height in the 3rd to the early years of the 4th century, and even now at present, many martyrs of the faith have given their lives to attest to the great ethic of God's Kingdom. Names like: St. Stephen the deacon, St. Sebastian, the virgin-martyrs Cecilia, Agnes, Lucy, Agatha, the WWII martyrs St. Edith Stein and St. Maximilian Kolbe and many others. These martyrs have inspired the entire Church to see that the love of Christ continues throughout many centuries. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church" (Tertullian). The faith of the Church grows strong because of the the witness of Christ and the martyrs.

Martyrdom is not a call nor a vocation to all in the Church. It is only for those who have been chosen by Christ to follow Him in His love to the very height of the Cross. But all the faithful are called to "love their enemies" by sanctifying their daily work with the patience and endurance required of their Christian state of life, and the painstaking need to complete all their tasks to meet all obligations. And this everyone does even in an environment where it is difficult to get along with co-workers who are completely opposite to one's temperament or work ethic. However, Christ's ethic of love is a solution: to make Christ and His ethic central to all in one's work and life. If this discipline is practiced daily with plain common sense, then one can learn to turn all the circumstances and events of one's work and life into opportunities to love God and serve Him. With the measure of mercy we received should we also be merciful to others with that same mercy.