20 June 2017 - by his poverty

Today's Readings

for in a severe test of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty
overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

Usually poverty doesn't overflow in generosity. For the Macedonians it does because their poverty is like that of Jesus Christ shows us.

For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that for your sake he became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Jesus enriches all of us because he allows himself to be poor. He does not insist on his rights. He becomes man and suffers and dies for us. All of this is beneath him as God. Yet he stoops down to us. This is what love does. We are meant to love even when we don't receive anything in return. We aren't meant to gauge the worthiness of those whom we love. Jesus proves that everyone is worthy of love.

But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Yes, we do love those close to us in a special way. But no one should be ineligible or excluded just as a matter of course. We are permitted no enemies whom we are free to ignore, to not love, or even to hate. If the world seems too big for us to love everyone let us at least work at extending our will in loving prayer to all. Let us pray particular for those we don't want to pray for. Let us pray for those who we don't like. Let us pray for those we think do not deserve it. As we pray for them our own hearts change. Our love is more broad. We find that we ourselves were selfish and not deserving of love. But as God gives us his grace we are able to love more like he loves.

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Let us love like the Father who loves us even when we act as his enemies.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life (see Romans 5:10)

Let us thank the Father for having shown us this love first and giving us the grace to love like him.

Praise the LORD, my soul!
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.