Sunday Meditation: The Sermon on the Plain Continues

Last week we heard the beginning of Jesus’s Sermon on the Plain.  We heard Luke’s version of the Beatitudes.  Just as in Matthew’s Gospel, Luke’s sermon continues beyond the Beatitudes.  On the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time in Year C, we get the rest of the sermon.  As we hear, Jesus continues what some have called “the Great Reversal.” 

 

Jesus said to his disciples:

“To you who hear I say,

love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

To the person who strikes you on one cheek,

offer the other one as well,

and from the person who takes your cloak,

do not withhold even your tunic.

Give to everyone who asks of you,

and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.

Do to others as you would have them do to you.

For if you love those who love you,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners love those who love them.

And if you do good to those who do good to you,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners do the same.

If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment,

what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners,

and get back the same amount.

But rather, love your enemies and do good to them,

and lend expecting nothing back;

then your reward will be great

and you will be children of the Most High,

for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

 

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.

Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give, and gifts will be given to you;

a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,

will be poured into your lap.

For the measure with which you measure

will in return be measured out to you.”

~Lk 6:27-38

Dr. Brant Pitre explains how this is a radical love.

 

As a pastoral homily, I liked Fr. Patrick Briscoe’s connection with this radical love with the lives of the saints.

 

As I just posted the other day, I think the life of Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati would be the perfect saint that Fr. Patrick alludes to.  I think his witness really exemplifies this Gospel passage.

 

Sunday Meditation: “For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

 

I love that quote and it always reminds me of the Shakespeare play where he uses it in the title, Measure for Measure.” 

For the hymn, let’s go with John Michael Talbot’s “The Greatest ‘Tis Love.”