HOMILY FOR TUESDAY, 11TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
1Kings 21:17-29; Matt 5:43-48
The last phrase of the gospel passage says “Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matt 5:48. I asked myself, and I am very sure that this question must have crossed our minds, what does it mean to be perfect? In those days, I thought that this was one of the most difficult things to do until I listened to one of the interviews of Pope St. John Paul II when he said that living holy lives is living our ordinary lives. He went further to explain that living ordinary lives means being good, be cheerful, even when we are faced with evils in our society.
In the gospel, we see that same phrase propping up. Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect. When we examine this gospel passage, we see our Lord Jesus showing us what it means to be perfect like God. What exactly is this? The Sun rises on both the evil and the good and the Rain on both the just and unjust. This statement of our Lord Jesus means that in our Christian actions, we must never be segregational that is doing good to those who are good to us and doing evil, or avoid those who are evil to us. This is so unchristian.
Dear brothers and sisters, Jesus invites us to portray the characteristics of God by becoming godlike and showing examples as shown in the gospel of today. We must love both the good and the evil just as God loves. We must forgive both good and evil just as God forgives. We must show unconditional good to both the just and the unjust. When we do this, we live holy lives. We become perfect just as God is perfect.
Pax Vobis
1 comment:
Nice word Fr. More grace and wisdom to you. We pray for God grace for us to be like him .
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