{"id":2043,"date":"2017-02-19T12:19:49","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T17:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2043"},"modified":"2017-02-19T12:19:49","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T17:19:49","slug":"7th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/7th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

7th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A<\/a>
\nLeviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
\nPsalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
\n1 Corinthians 3:16-23
\nMatthew 5:38-48
\nFebruary 19, 2017<\/p>\n

Our readings continue on the themes we have been hearing in recent weeks.\u00a0 Paul continues to speak about what it means to be wise versus foolish and Jesus continues to speak about what God\u2019s Law really means for us.\u00a0 What Jesus speaks of today is not explicitly found in the Ten Commandments but it is found in the Old Testament.<\/p>\n

Jesus says, \u201cYou have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 This is found in both Leviticus 24:30 and Exodus 21:24.\u00a0 Today people will cite it to justify the death penalty or other acts of retaliation while calling it justice.\u00a0 Taken at face value, the verse would seem to justify this.<\/p>\n

A couple of items here, first, if we want to quote the Bible we can\u2019t look at any one line to suit our needs.\u00a0 We need to look at the whole of the Bible.\u00a0 In this case we just need to look at the next sentence by Jesus, \u201cBut I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil<\/em>\u201d and He will go on to speak of loving our enemies.<\/p>\n

Secondly, we need to think about why Leviticus and Exodus both include this verse of \u201can eye for an eye,\u2026<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Here we need to think about why we have rules.\u00a0 Genuinely rules are made to stop us from doing something worse.\u00a0 In this case, this phrase is not meant to tell us we must retaliate this harshly.\u00a0 People were actually doing worse.\u00a0 For instance, when one was attacked by another, the retaliation might be to attack the whole village of the first attacker.<\/p>\n

So, the rule, \u201can eye for an eye..<\/em>\u201d was meant to lessen the response.\u00a0 At the time when God first offered this teaching through Moses, the Israelites were just starting out from Egypt and learning what it means to be God\u2019s Children.<\/p>\n

Jesus came over 1,200 years after Moses.\u00a0 As a people, Israel had experienced much.\u00a0 Jesus seeks in to help them make the next step in understanding what God\u2019s teaching means for us.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way.\u00a0 For all of you who are raising or have raised children, do we have the same level of rules for a two-year old as a fifteen year old?\u00a0 For the two-year old, rules center of safety and not hurting others.\u00a0 Also, for the two-year old, we don\u2019t expect them to have a deep understanding of the rule.\u00a0 We tell them something and that is supposed to be enough.<\/p>\n

When they get to fifteen, just because mom or dad say so is no longer enough.\u00a0 As they grow, we need to teach them why the rule is there.\u00a0 Also, at fifteen, there are more<\/em><\/strong> rules to follow.\u00a0 There are more not to be mean but because we can handle it.<\/p>\n

With this in mind, Jesus takes the rule \u201can eye for an eye\u2026<\/em>\u201d and tells to love everyone.\u00a0 This is not really totally new.\u00a0 In our first reading, we heard, \u201cYou shall not bear hatred,\u2026take no revenge and cherish no grudge.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Jesus doesn\u2019t change what God has been expected all along.\u00a0 He just helps us understand it better.<\/p>\n

With that sometimes it is hard to hear that we are supposed to love everyone.\u00a0 People do bad things to us and we want to see them punished but if we take revenge how are we any better?\u00a0 How do we expect anything to get any better if we aren\u2019t willing to be the first to be good, to be holy?<\/p>\n

With this in mind, we hear the last verse of today\u2019s gospel, \u201cSo be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 To us, \u201cperfect\u201d means to do everything<\/em> in the exact right way.\u00a0 As humans, we are incapable of reaching perfection in this way.\u00a0 This is true today and it was true when the Lord told Moses to say to the people, \u201cBe holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

To be holy (perfect)<\/em>, is to strive to follow all of God\u2019s teaching to the best of our ability.\u00a0 God knows we are not \u201cperfect.\u201d\u00a0 He knows we are not always good.\u00a0 That is why \u201che makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 God wants to help us because He loves us.<\/p>\n

God knows and we know that we are not perfect.\u00a0 We know we need God\u2019s help.\u00a0 That\u2019s why our opening prayer said \u201cGrant, we pray, almighty God, that, always pondering spiritual things, we may carry out in both word and deed that which is pleasing to you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18 Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 Matthew 5:38-48 February 19, 2017 Our readings continue on the themes we have been hearing in recent weeks.\u00a0 Paul continues to speak about what it means to be wise versus foolish and Jesus continues to speak …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[252,251,250],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-wX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2044,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2043\/revisions\/2044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}