Homily: Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time

Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time (Lk. 6:27-38) “A Positive Ethic”

The section we read from the Gospel of Luke today refers to the Golden rule. “Do unto others the way you would have them do to you.” The golden rule is like a lot of sayings in various religions. What we notice is that the Golden Rule that Jesus proposes is positive not negative.

Philo, the great Jew of Alexandria proposed the following ethical standard, “What is hateful to thee do not do to another.” He asked that his listener refrain from acting in an unethical way. Jesus proposed that his followers take action to improve another person’s life.

Jesus also recommended that his followers never act out of vengeance but that his followers forgive. We are to love our enemies. There are various ways to love another person. We love our family members, but we never will be able to love our enemies in the same way. The love we have for our enemies means that we wish them no harm and only what is best.

Sometimes we have the tendency to compare our behavior to that of others. We may say to ourselves that we are very ethical and forgiving because others around us are unethical and vengeful.

Christians are held to a higher standard. We are not to compare ourselves to our neighbors. We are to compare ourselves to Christ. When we compare our behavior to that of Jesus, we will come up short.

The question is not can I love other people in a more authentic way? Am I better at loving than others I interact with? But can I love others as Jesus loves them?

Reflection Questions:

1.    Do I compare my behavior to others? What if I compared myself to Jesus?

2.   Do go out of my way to help others? Do I just try not to hurt others?

 Dear Parishioners,

             I was visiting classrooms yesterday. Our school year is off to a good start. It is always uplifting to visit the younger children. They are usually glad to see me.

            I spoke to them yesterday about the importance of the common meal for Jesus. The children understand that eating fast food on the go is not the same as sitting down to share food and conversation as a family.

            Jesus had a ministry of table fellowship. We need to recapture that ideal. The Mass is not a personal spiritual exercise. But it is part of the corporate worship of the church. We are at Mass to worship God and to engage with our neighbor.

            May Our Lady of Peace pray for us,

            Fr. Mark