Seventh Sunday of the year A

-
This is my homily notes for the 7th Sunday of the Year which is missing from here because I lost the Notes on my computer. Kindly Michael from Rose Green keeps all my notes. If I ever become a Saint which I know I won't he is the person to see. 


Today we continue through the Sermon on the Mount and we come to what I think is one of the most challenging parts of the Gospel and this is where Jesus tells us to love our enemies. There are two themes that link itself to this and that is revenge and the second is love. Let take each of these in turn.
Often when someone wrongs us the first instinct that we have is for revenge. Jesus talks about the law which states an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. This sounds a bit barbaric to our ears today. It actually comes from the book of Exodus. Here it states “if further harm is done however you will reward life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stroke for stroke.” Although by the time of Jesus it was meant to be a moral decision and a retaliation of Goods. So what Jesus says in the Gospel that you should love your enemies is a really radical idea.
Even today we can see that this is a really challenging statement. But, here are a few points that help me. Once I was moaning to my spiritual director about someone who I really did not like. He said to me “Peter you don’t necessarily have to like everyone in fact it is near impossible But you do have to learn to love them”

So what then does this mean? I am sure that if you really look at the way we use the word we would have many different meanings. For love of food or drink, sport or activity and then God and Friends cover such a wide spectrum and yet it is all one word. IT seems to me that we should actually be meaning different words for each of them.  

So I encourage you to really think about how we use the word love.
In order though to love others we must therefore learn to love ourselves, this is one of the most difficult things in our lives. We must therefore treat ourselves every now and then and learn to love who we are and how we treat ourselves.
A way though of loving others and yourselves is to learn to pray for yourselves and for others deeply: Getting rid of ideas of revenge and learning to love self enables us then to love others. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Year of Service

-
Image
  This last weekend I was able to look back with friends at the wonderful year I had with the Vincentian Volunteers. Looking back I can see that there are many elements to this year that have remained always with me. These I can now see and after reflection have shaped my life since this most formative year. From this year I went on to train for the priesthood and became a priest. After 16 years I left ministry and now try my best to live my Christian values and life in the world. In a recent upgrade to my CV I realised that my whole adult life has been in some sort of service to others and usually to the most vulnerable and those on the fringes of society. From working in Top Shop to ministry to the Hospital to the work I now do in education. This all stems from this year I had with the community and putting Love in action. Yes I have made mistakes on the way and my human frailty has been evident but this life was never going to easy and straight forward.  When I look back on that yea
Read more

Easter

-
Image
  Over the last few years I have had major issues with the Catholic Church. I think that my issue is the authority of the Church and how many clergy, not all, use and abuse their power and class the laity as stupid idiots. I can say this as for 16 years I was a priest and caught up in the system. When you're in the middle of it you can't aways see what is going on around you. I could not see what the Church as a structure was doing to peoples lives. Until I was out I realised that the Church and Im talking about the Catholic Church here is full up of repressed men who are scared of change scared of themselves and scared of the laity. Those who speak out especially clergy who want significant change are laughed at by others and classed as trouble makers. This includes Pope Francis himself who wants change but sometimes can't get it because of what he has inherited. It is an issue that has gone on your centuries.  This does not allow for a healthy functioning Church. There ne
Read more

What have we learnt? Covid and the last year.

-
Image
Over the last year since the start of the Covid pandemic there has been much in the press about the affects on society. We have seen that there are many people who are anxious, feel alone and worried about the future. So I looked on the Internet for the Christian response to the Pandemic. I was not surprised to see that there were many articles to suggest that the Christian Church as a whole has failed in this time.  In the first Lockdown the Churches were asked to close and there was no public worship. As the infection rate went down the Churches could open for private prayer. In the recent lockdown many places of worship have remained open although the infection rate being a lot higher. I have maybe been a thorn in peoples sides by asking why. I even wrote to the Cardinal  to ask him why. I argued that they should be left shut because of the demographic that tend to go. I got a standard reply back. When I looked in newsletters I read many times about how to give your collection and t
Read more