1. -- Lanie LeBlanc OP
2. -- Dennis Keller OP
3. -- Fr. John Boll OP
4. --
5. --(Your reflection can be here!)

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Sun. 7 C 2025

The message in our first and third readings this Sunday continue to jab at society and the un-godly way some people think about and treat other people, then and now. We read, hear, and perhaps even participate ourselves, either fully or by being complicit, in the revenge, pettiness, and belittling that often seems a way of life these days. How did we get on such a path, sometimes unknowingly!!??

I think that it is pretty normal to want to be the best we can each be. Hopefully, that is directed to mean in God’s eyes, but that is not what always happens. Sometimes to feel good, we focus on other’s faults (instead of our own) and things deteriorate from there.

The Native American legend about the two wolves still sticks with me! In order to “feed” the good wolf within us, we must realize that each and every person (yes, even “them”) has tendencies for both good and evil. Nonetheless, each and every person is treated kindly and mercifully by God.

How can each of us give each person we meet that same grace that flows to us from God and treat them with basic kindness? A starting place might be to eliminate comparisons, snide internal remarks, and even combat the feeling of a slight superiority (even about religion!).

Sounds easy, but I think it is hard work. Our society is so fast paced that much goes on thoughtlessly or unintentionally. The best way to remedy that is to try earnestly to make our words intentional and to monitor the thoughts that accompany them. That effort will certainly slow us down, maybe to God-speed!

Blessings,
Dr. Lanie LeBlanc OP
Southern Dominican Laity
lanie@leblanc.one

Seventh Sunday of Ordered Time February 23, 2025

1st Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Responsorial Psalm 103;
1st Corinthians 15:45-49; Gospel Acclamation John 13:34; Luke 6:27-38

After a Sunday of Beatitudes that changes everything, we run into a very difficult Gospel. Love your enemies! Wow, how hard is that? Last Sunday was not really easy. At least not if we listened and applied the next iteration of God’s Law. In Deuteronomy we heard a lot of thou shalt nots. In the beatitudes we heard a lot of “you’ll be happy if you are such and so.” Actually, the Law we call “of Moses” carries that same reasoning – a guide to life that you may be happy and live a long life. I believe we’ve been led to believe the law is about after life and just pain and a restriction of freedoms. If we read the whole text, we’ll discover that the Creator wanted his creation to enjoy three great gifts – reason, free will, and a heart that guided the reason to happy choices of action. The God who knows us in and out, up and down, in season and out of season knows what makes us happy and what destroys the freedom of our hearts which inform our minds and are sources for free will. God is not threatening us with perdition or punishment. God wishes our happiness. Our God is God who is like the Father of the prodigal son, always looking down the road for us to come home to him.

The beatitudes of last week are statements by Jesus, the Son of God/Son of Man, telling us we will have a shot at happiness if we are poor. That means we are poor in our hearts even though we have billions or only a few bucks. Happiness has to do with relationships of discovering our Father, our Creator, and the image and likeness of God in one another.

That image and likeness message makes the beatitudes, especially their impact on social justice issues, reasonable. Even the encouragement to love our enemies who harm us, our families, our environment, our nation is about that. I have experienced that love heals broken hearts, mends depression, and makes whole what has fallen into pieces in life. But it takes unselfish love, committed love, an unconditional love. It is not about that radio station – WIIFM, What’s In It For Me.

The first reading from the first book of Samuel is about that. David had been such a great warrior for King Saul. Saul became very jealous of the adulation David enjoyed because of his military successes. Saul went to war with David and his warriors. Killing Saul as he lay sleeping would have solved his problems. That is what the wisdom of the world insists. David realized that killing Saul would be contrary to God’s anointing of Saul as King. He had been anointed by Samuel at God’s direction. It would be an affront to God to kill him. He could have eliminated his enemy, but David honored the anointing. Saul relented of his vendetta. There came an uneasy peace between David and Saul. The times have changed. Or have they? I wonder, as I volunteer working with abused and neglected, if those abused can ever forgive and love their abuser. The cultural error that women are lesser than men are the foundation such evil domination exercised by depraved men. Offenders rob their victims of dignity and worth in an effort to enslave them. Such enemies are difficult for the abused to love. So, also the victims of war. The urgency of peace for all: the heroic love for those who harm us seems beyond our ability and our will. Yet, for us to be happy, Jesus says we are to be peacemakers. It is certainly a challenge to our Christian living.

Dennis Keller Dennis@PreacherExchange.com
 

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2025-02-23 Homily
SEVENTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME Year C

I Samuel 26:2,7-9,12-13,22-23; I Corinthians 15:45-49; Luke 6:27-38

There are moments when I look down and glimpse my hands
and say, these are my Father’s hands!
And there other times,
I catch a glimpse of my Father
in an expression, movement, or phrase...,
that reminds me, I am my Father’s Son!
I also trace many things in myself
to what my parents lived and taught.
There is a feeling of gratitude,
thankfulness and wonder in it for me.

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,”

There have been some dangerous people
who have lived this message in their lives,
Francis of Assisi
Martin Luther King Jr.
Mahatma Gandhi
and many martyrs throughout the ages
They imitated Jesus, who showed us who the Father is.

All profoundly changed their world -
and provided opportunities for others to live fuller lives.

The imitation of God goes even further,
What we have longed for and received,
is to show in our own lives:

How do I want to be treated?
How do I know I am forgiven?

Here you go:
“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.”

What is remarkable about all this
is that this is not a another set of rules to live by,
Although it may be useful in that way.

Rather it is about Who God is!!!!
and Who we are invited to become in God.

Jesus, in his life, showed us who God is,
We see him Welcoming sinners
and loving them even before they changed.

It was his love and welcome
that empowered the change in their lives. (Zachius)

It is that same love, welcome, and empowerment
that also changes us, in Him.

It is that same love, welcome, and empowerment
that we are invited to live in Christ,
that the world might know God,
and be transformed into his kingdom!

Jesus says:
“For if you love and do Good to those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them.”

“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.”


So How about it?
Will you embrace the call to become like your Father?
Who has first treated you in this very way?

Will you become the child who tries on the traits
of your Father,
The Child who, regardless of their imperfections,
continues to trustingly play at what they have seen and heard.

Who under the loving guidance of their parents
reaches maturity,
ultimately becoming like their Father and Mother,
and so live for others
the Gifts of love they themselves received?

Fr. John Boll OP