Fr. Mike's Gospel Reflection - February 23, 2025

This week’s Gospel is a continuation of “The Sermon on the Plain” in which Jesus lays out many of His expectations about how we should act toward one another. It is more detailed version of “Love one another.” He apparently does not trust his followers (or us) to understand what “Love one another” actually looks like in real life, so he gives some very clear examples.

Jesus immediately gets our attention by telling us to love our enemies and pray for those who mistreat us. That is not exactly what most of us have in mind. It is even more troubling when we realize that He is just getting started. The teachings that follow challenge us to act exactly contrary to how we might instinctively act and He is not just talking about being more courteous to one another in the parking lot after mass (although that would be nice). Jesus makes it very clear that He is a disruptive force; that the same old ideas and actions are not good enough; and, that we need to listen carefully and make some serious adjustments to the way that we think, speak, and act.

Considering that the Jews were hoping that their Messiah was going to free them from Roman oppression, this was not a welcome message at all. I’m guessing that most of them felt angry and betrayed. Yet, if we fail to take His message seriously, we are missing one of the three essential Catholic beliefs about Jesus: He rose from the dead; He is really present in the Eucharist; and, He expects us to love one another. None of these is easy to accept. In fact, His message of love is completely counter-cultural. Yet, He never waivers from His very clear instructions.

What exactly does that mean for all of us? Our Lord’s message today is nearly impossible to follow. Does that mean we should ignore it totally and just go about our lives like everyone else? Perhaps a better approach would be to work harder every single day to aspire to be the kind of man or woman that Jesus describes. We give glory to God in our striving to follow His teaching. Of course, we will fail often, but if we try relentlessly, we will ultimately succeed when we are called to eternal life.