June 17, 2024, Monday
Read: 1 Kgs 21: 1-16 Mt 5: 38-42
“If anyone wants to go to law over your shirt, hand him your coat as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the man who begs from you. Do not turn your back on the borrower.” (Mt 5:40-42)
In Matthew’s gospel, chapters 5 through 8, Jesus gives us a new call to adjust our attitude and perform some major sacrifices. He thereby made a threshold by which we must pass to be truly Christian.
We would not feel the disadvantages of being a Christian and living the Gospel if we were willing to cooperate with the will of God. If we could see things the way that God sees them and understand justice the way that God asks us to understand it — our attitude would be completely different.
The Christian life reminds us that the teachings of Jesus oblige us to lessen our ego and will (not an easy call by any stretch of the imagination) to the will of another (the person in need), and most importantly: to the divine will of God.
“If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross, and begin to follow in my footsteps.” (Mt 16:24)
“Enter through the narrow gate. The gate that leads to damnation is wide and the road is clear, and many choose to travel it. But how narrow is the gate that leads to life, how rough the road, and how few there are who find it!” (Mt 7:13-14)
We have to want eternal life to have sufficient courage to sacrifice our natural advantages to guard our true faithfulness to the love of Jesus.
Reflection and commentary
Psalm 40:8 “To do your will, O my God, is my delight.”
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