1 Sam. 26: 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; Ps. 103:1-4, 8, 10, 12-13; 1 Cor. 15:45-49; Lk. 6:27-38
Today in the gospel the Lord makes clear what it is to truly “love one another”. When he calls us to “love your enemies and do good to those who hate you” he is reminding us of what we as humanity did to him and how he responded to our rejection of him then on the cross and now by our sinfulness. Jesus prayed to the Father to forgive us of our sins.
Jesus loves us even when we strike him on the face with our sins. He continues to give to us who ask for his mercy, to those of us who forget to show our gratitude for our very life and all we have. Instead, we judge, we measure what we give, we refuse to forgive, and in doing so we limit all that God desires for us to receive in his abundance of grace.
David recognized that Saul was a chosen one of God even as Saul sought to persecute and kill David. Saul chose to act mercifully in return and not kill Saul when he had the opportunity instead, he acted with love and brought about the conversion of heart in Saul. David acted in the image of Christ for the goal is not to conquer the enemy but to bring about a conversion from the desire to sin to the desire to love and bring peace. This is what it means what it means to go from being “earthy” to “spiritual”. The earthy destroys while the spiritual builds up what is good to something better.
We are being called to bear the image of the “heavenly one” and shed the sins of the “first man, Adam” by taking on the call from the heavenly one and bear his image. This we cannot do alone but with Christ all things are possible. It is possible through our surrender to Christ so that by seeking we will know the way, and by the love of one another will we also rise with him every day and in the final coming.
Jesus is ready to reveal himself to us but are we ready for him? It is difficult to shed the scales of earthly life when we prefer to excuse ourselves for our weakness, faults, and sins claiming “I’m only human”. Our definition of being “only human” is a false view of God’s creation for our humanity. To be fully human in God’s eyes is to be perfect as he created us to be in his image. God’s “perfect” is love, love one another.
To be fully human is to rise above our weaknesses, faults, and sins and seek something greater for ourselves not something less. The greater part can only come through our creator who gives us the power and grace to move mountains that stand in the way of becoming God’s great saints. To settle for earthy beings is to settle for sin and sin leads to death.
We are born earthly, that is with the fallen nature of the first Adam but God provides us his spiritual nature through Jesus by coming to receive him in the sacraments of the church. Baptism washes away our sins and covers us with the spiritual blessing to enter into the spiritual life but we must also mature in this life to be all that God created us to be. This requires our will for God cannot save us without us. In his image we were given a soul to unite our mind to his, our heart to unite our love to his heart, and our will to accept the will of the Father through obedience, the obedience that guards and helps us to reach the promise land, the heavenly kingdom, the love that lasts for eternity. Love one another!
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