Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
A friend recently gave me the book “Living your Strengths” ( Winseman Clifton, Liesveld ) that included a survey meant to help you find your strengths. One of my top strengths was “harmony” (You look for areas of agreement. In your view we are all in the same boat, and we need this boat to get where we are going.) I believe that harmony is a strength or desire given by God, since I believe that God beckons all people not only to live in harmony but to be united in Him. I believe that God’s plan is to make all things one in Him. God encourages us to help bring this harmony to the world by being His instruments of love and mercy.
When I read today’s gospel reading I had a hard time seeing any evidence of harmony. Jesus tells his apostles that that he has come “to set man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law?” I can’t imagine that Jesus is calling us to set up a family feud with our loved ones. However, I believe that Jesus knows that when His disciples live in a radical way, family members may turn against one another because of these beliefs.
In the reading, Jesus tells His disciples “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Jesus is inviting us to love Him first and foremost and then to love others through Him. The love of Jesus is greater, more compassionate, more merciful, and more self giving then we could begin to imagine on our own.
You would think that the love of Jesus should bring harmony both within our family and in our world, but this is not always the case. The love that Jesus calls us to includes love of those who are rejected, persecuted, impoverished, different from us, and even those who hate us. This means that we need to love the immigrant, the poor man living on the street, the drug addict, the criminal, the aged, and all those people who are different than us in race, ethnicity, religion or sexuality. This love includes not just our day to day interactions with others, but includes how we approach our societal responsibilities as well. In our love, we need to do as Jesus teaches and love others by assuring that all people’s rights are respected and all people have what they need to live. This kind of love is difficult and almost impossible unless it flows from the love of Christ.
Certainly Jesus lived a life of non violent, compassionate mercy and calls us to do the same, and yet He recognizes that not all people choose to follow Him. This is where we as His disciples need to continue to try to live out this love even if it brings contention and hatred from others. Just as we have been transformed by Jesus’ love and mercy, He sends us forth to share this love and mercy with those around us so they can also be transformed. This will not be easy, and in fact will require us to “lose our life” to be His instruments. But if we are able to surrender to God and His will for us, we can bring His mercy to the world and not only bring us life, but draw others together in harmony with God.
Pope Francis has some insightful thoughts on how we are to bring about the harmony of God through his mercy and justice.” God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14). ... Let us be renewed by God's mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.(Pope Francis Easter- Urbi et Orbi March 2013)- We come to know Jesus and his mercy when we spend time in prayer listening and looking at Him. Pope Francis remarks about out time spent in friendship with Jesus. “We too can reflect: what look is Jesus giving me today? How is Jesus looking at me? With a call? With a pardon? With a mission? For on the path God created, all of us are being looked at by Jesus. He is always looking at us with love. He asks us something, he forgives us for something, and he gives us a mission.
Let us see how Jesus looks at us with love and mercy, and then share this same look with others. May this mercy be what brings all things to be in harmony with God.
"Heavenly Father, you created us to be with you as one. Our sinfulness turns us away from you, but the mercy of your Son, Jesus invites us back. Through the power of Your Spirit, help us to be transformed by this mercy so we can share your mercy and love with others. May we live in harmony with all people and united with all creation may be give you glory and praise. We pray this through Christ our LORD. Amen."
Marylynn Herchline