First Monday of Lent

You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart.  Though you may have to reprove him, do not incur sin because of him.  Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Hatred is not from God. Even those who are the enemies of God and persecutors of His children are loved by God. He loves them because He made them. He gave them the ability to choose right over wrong and He continues to offer them His Hand in forgiveness if they will take it with humble and contrite hearts. If God, who is constantly sinned against and suffered terribly during His Passion, can love His enemies, then we must do the same. We might not like someone, but we can choose to love them. We might be tempted to avenge ourselves against those who have done us wrong. However, God does not desire revenge, He wants us to know, love, and serve others as best as we can. This does not mean condoning evil or standing idly by when we see someone do wrong, but that when we confront others we do so out of love and not out of anger or hatred.

Do we need to cleanse ourselves of any hatreds? How can we learn to love even those whom we dislike or who have hurt us? How can we live out the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves?

O Lord, empty us of all hatred and fill us with your Divine Love.

Amen.

Sixth Monday of Ordinary Time

The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not. Cain greatly resented this and was crestfallen. So the LORD said to Cain: “Why are you so resentful and crestfallen. If you do well, you can hold up your head; but if not, sin is a demon lurking at the door: his urge is toward you, yet you can be his master.” Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

Envy is such a difficult sin to avoid. This is because it comes in many subtle forms. It can start out small, but as it burrows into our heart it grows, consuming our ability to love others and replacing it with a hollow hatred that can cause us to do terrible things to those we envy. However, God will always warn us, through our consciences, if we are straying into the realm of envy or sin. He gives us every support and encourages us to do better so we can hold our heads up high while not looking with evil upon others. The only person who can make us envious is ourselves. We have the power to determine who we love and who we hate and it is no one else’s fault when we let hatred seep into our souls. Instead of dwelling on what others have or the praises they are receiving, we should instead focus on all the good things God has given us and on our responsibilities and how we can do better. We are not called to measure ourselves against each other, but rather to celebrate each other’s successes and do God’s Will to the best of our ability.

Are we envious of someone else? If so, then how can we learn to love them? What can we do to open our hearts to the successes of others and celebrate them as if they were our own?

O Lord, help us to hold our heads up high. Not out of pride, but out of a knowledge that we are doing your will.

Amen.

Memorial of Saint John Neumann, Bishop

We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers. Whoever does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life remaining in him. The way we came to know love was that he laid down his life for us; so we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If someone who has worldly means sees a brother in need and refuses him compassion, how can the love of God remain in him? Children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth.

Our love for God and others is our proof what we are God's children. If our love is tainted by selfishness, comes with caveats, or is impure in any way, then we will remain in death. However, if our love is pure and without exceptions, then we shall pass from death into life. God laid His life down for us through Jesus Christ. This act of ultimate sacrifice is one we need to be able to make as well. We might never be called on to martyr ourselves the way Jesus did, but we must have the spirit of martyrdom within us. We need to be able to love not only in word or speech, but in deed and truth. We need compassionate and loving hearts that are able to overcome our selfish hatreds and choose to do good even to those who are our enemies.

O Lord, help us to love in thought, word, and work.

Amen.

Twenty-Third Wednesday of Ordinary Time

Blessed are you who are poor, for the Kingdom of God is yours. Blessed are you who are now hungry, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who are now weeping, for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.  For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

God blesses those who are poor, hungry, weeping, and hated because they are the ones in most need of blessing and spiritual support. He understands what it means to be all these things because he witnessed all these things himself. He saw how the poor around him suffered. He himself went hungry when he fasted in the desert. He wept and knew others who cried tears of suffering, remorse, and sadness. He was hated, excluded by his own hometown, insulted by numerous others, and denounced by the Pharisees and others. He knows first-hand what all these trials entail and that is why he blesses those who are going through them. His blessings give them strength so that one day they will make it through these trials, rejoice, and be rewarded for their sacrifices in Heaven.

What trials are we facing? What blessings is God offering us to help us through these times of difficulty? What can we do to help others going through these trials, too?

O Lord, bless us so we can overcome poverty, hunger, weeping, and hatred in our lives and the lives of others.

Amen.

The Seventh Wednesday of Easter

I gave them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth.  Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world. And I consecrate myself for them, so that they also may be consecrated in truth.

We do not belong to the world and so it hates us. Instead, we belong to Jesus and through him we belong to the Holy Spirit and our Heavenly Father. Part of belonging to Christ is choosing good over evil and being protected from the Evil One. Another part is being detached from the world and instead being consecrated to God and His Divine Truth. We also are sent into the world to bear witness to our faith through our thoughts, words, and works, to bring hope to all we meet, and to know, love, and serve God and all His children. To help us with these things, Jesus consecrated himself for us on the cross and through the reception of Christ’s Body and Blood, we are sanctified and made into a Holy People, bearing the Good News to all the nations.

Do we belong to the world or to God? Do we give thanks and praise to God for all the times He has kept us from the Evil One? Are we consecrated in the Truth of the Gospels?

O Lord, your word is truth. Consecrate us in it.

Amen.

The Fifth Saturday of Easter

If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own; but because you do not belong to the world, and I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Remember the word I spoke to you, ‘No slave is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. And they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me.

Very few people like to be hated. In fact, many of us will do everything we can to avoid conflict with others or to be liked. However, Jesus reminds us that being a Christian isn’t supposed to be a popularity contest. The truths we hold as Disciples of Christ run counter to the perceptions of the world. The world believes the ends justify the means, that success in life is measured by money, titles, and toys, and everything is relative. But we believe in loving each other (even our enemies) to the best of our abilities, that success in life is measured by our faith, hope, and charity, and there are Divine Truths, which will never change. Jesus also reminds us that the world hated and persecuted him and it will hate and persecute us, too if we keep his commands. However, we can be comforted with the thought that all our sufferings can be combined with his to create a crown of glory which we can give to God when we join Jesus in heaven.

Do we belong to God or the world? Are we willing to be hated and persecuted in order to do what is right and good? Are we willing to love those who harm us, just as Jesus did?

O Lord, if we must be hated for your sake, then so be it.

Amen.

The First Saturday of Lent

You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 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. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The world tells us to love our neighbors and hate our enemies, but Jesus gives us a new commandment. We are to love and pray for our enemies so that we can become true children of God. This is a difficult commandment to live with, but it is one that helps scrape away the imperfections of our hearts. If we can love those who hate and persecute us, then we shall be able to understand, if only in some small way, the feeling of rejection Jesus felt as all his followers abandoned him and the people of Jerusalem turned away from him. We can gain a tiny glimpse of the unrequited love he poured out upon those who struck, spat upon, scourged, and crucified him. And not just those people present during His Passion, but all sinners from the beginning of the world to the end. Each in our own way has been the enemy of Jesus at one point in our life or another. This is why it is so important for us to learn how to love our enemies because we will be treated by God in the same way as we treated them. So let us put aside our pride and be willing to accept the slings and arrows of our enemies and respond only with the love of Christ.

Do we love our enemies as Jesus asks us to and thereby unite ourselves with his Passion? How can we do a better job of forgiving and even loving those who persecute and hate us? Are we willing to love others without the expectation of return?

O Lord, give us the grace to love our enemies.

Amen.

Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven.  For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

In today’s gospel, Jesus reminds us that we must be willing to be hated, excluded, insulted, and denounced on account of him. Doing what is right and good is not always the most popular thing we can do, but it is the only option if we wish to be Christ-like. And when we are persecuted, we must suffer the slings and arrows of others joyfully because our trials and tribulations mirror those of Christ’s passion and allow us to share—however slightly—in his sacrificial life. So the next time we are misunderstood, mocked, or otherwise demeaned because of our love of God or neighbor, let us be thankful for it and offer it up to God as a token of our faith in Him.

Are we willing to be hated in order to do the right thing? Do we rejoice when others persecute us? How do we unite our sufferings with those of Christ?

O Lord, we rejoice whenever we do your will, no matter the cost.

Amen.