Walking with Jesus: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Sunday, Feb. 19, 2023

Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48

We look back at the Garden of Eden and ask: What is the SIN associated with Adam and Eve? Moses started off his Primeval History with the first story of Creation. God created the heavens and the earth, and continued with “making it beautiful to behold.”  God examined His creation and “saw how good it was. Then God said: ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. ... God created man in His image; in the divine image He created him; male and female He created them.” [Genesis 1:26, 27] “And God looked at everything He had made, and He found it very good. Evening came, and morning followed — the sixth day.”

God continued creating, instructing man: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” [Genesis 1:16] Then God created woman, a companion to man. They lived in the garden (chapter 2),  and then came The Fall of Man in chapter 3. This initiated the world’s obsession with pride, echoed from the inner workings of a child: “I want what I want because I want it,” which continues during the growing pains of life. The internet defines pride as “too high an opinion of one’s own ability or worth … a feeling of being better than others” … yet also as a “reasonable and justifiable sense of one’s own worth, self-respect and a sense of pleasure that comes from some act or possession.”

So what is my goal? What is the reason I was created? The catechism says: to Know God, to Love God and to Serve Him in this world and be Happy with Him forever in heaven.

Our first reading today is from the book of Leviticus. The tribes of Israel remain encamped at the base of Mt. Sinai. They have received the Ten Commandments. The people have agreed to demonstrate to their own and neighboring cultures the quality of character that reflects the close bond they have with God: I will be your God…you will be My people. Our reading is central to Judaism and to Christianity. As the third of the five books of Moses (the Pentateuch), our passage is at the center of Leviticus and is directed not to a select few but to the whole of the Israelite community. It sets up God as the model of all holiness and teaching who calls all to bring His holiness to the world. How is this to be done? Today’s selection addresses the need for critical response from all to love as God loves, without hatred, revenge or any attached grudges. This will lead to the second half of Jesus’ Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” [Matthew 22:37-39] Moses is challenging the people to be holy just as God is holy. The people, just like us, must strive to show such divine love in the way they treat one another. Note that the challenge and command is to show divine love … not just kindness and care, but forgiveness and compassion.

Paul is getting fed up with the Corinthians. They have been boasting about the things of the world. They feel important because they “belong.” How limited they are because they belong to some human society! Paul insists that “everything belongs to you” because of their relationship with Christ. Am I showing God, or me? Am I grateful because of God’s love, care and forgiveness?

Jesus is asking the people listening to His Sermon on the Mount to look at possible applications of God’s command to love. What does non-resistance to violence look like today? Jesus radicalizes love of neighbor by adding love of enemy. Do I include them by asking God’s love on them and showing this love by my acceptance and forgiveness? An “eye for an eye” (see Leviticus 24:19-20) sought to limit violence by not exceeding the initial harm. Jesus shows the ultimate example by accepting and welcoming His own suffering, crucifixion and death on the cross. Overall this seems like an impossible idea. The key here is the word perfect. Jesus doesn’t use this word as philosophers would, implying metaphysical perfection. From a Jewish perspective, perfect means “whole” or “complete.” Being perfect means having all the pieces together … working in harmony with one another … working in perfect union, as when we have the same outlook … goal … end product: to love as God loves.

So I reflect on:

• I long to be a better person and more fully functioning as a Christian. What Christian goal — ideal — have I wanted to strengthen? Lent is coming; can I work on this?
• Sometimes, in my wrestling, do I try to make others more closely resemble what I think is best? Am I inventing clones of myself or disciples of Jesus?

Sacred Space 2023 states:

“Jesus portrays God as a loving and proud Father who sees Himself in me and in each one of His sons and daughters. So He expects of me, as a dearly loved child of His, created in His image, that I will be good to all my brothers and sisters, even my ‘enemies’ and persecutors.

“I am not to retaliate, but should give, share, lend and go the extra mile.”