Friends,
in today’s Gospel Jesus charges us to be merciful and to stop judging
others. But we cannot perform such behaviors on our own strength—we need
God’s assistance.
In the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Jesus
tells his followers: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is
perfect." The perfection that he urges—which includes a radical love of
enemies, the practice of nonviolence in the face of aggression, the
refusal to judge one’s brothers and sisters, and an embrace of poverty,
meekness, and simplicity of heart—is not desirable or even possible
within a natural framework.
The form of life outlined in the
Sermon on the Mount would strike Aristotle as excessive and
irrational—and that is just the point. Its viability and beauty will
emerge
only when one’s mind, will, and body have been invaded and elevated by
the love that God is.
This is not to say that the natural moral
excellences perceived by Aristotle are invalidated by grace; the
invasion of the sacred does not overwhelm or undermine the secular. But
it does indeed transfigure it.
This transfiguration is the effect of love, working its way through the moral self.
Reflect: When
faced with the command of Jesus to "be perfect," do you try harder,
give up, or surrender to grace? If you surrender, what does that
surrender look like?
Monday of the Second Week in Lent
Lectionary: 230
“Lord, great and awesome God,
you who keep your merciful covenant toward those who love you
and observe your commandments!
We have sinned, been wicked and done evil;
we have rebelled and departed from your commandments and your laws.
We have not obeyed your servants the prophets,
who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes,
our fathers, and all the people of the land.
Justice, O Lord, is on your side;
we are shamefaced even to this day:
we, the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem,
and all Israel, near and far,
in all the countries to which you have scattered them
because of their treachery toward you.
O LORD, we are shamefaced, like our kings, our princes, and our fathers,
for having sinned against you.
But yours, O Lord, our God, are compassion and forgiveness!
Yet we rebelled against you
and paid no heed to your command, O LORD, our God,
to live by the law you gave us through your servants the prophets.”
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