Today's Thoughts...

Today’s Thoughts: Our Gospel is a continue of Luke’s Sermon on the Plain that we heard last week. We hear a teaching about the way the followers of Jesus are to live. In his instruction Jesus gets specific and personal. Jesus is calling his disciples to listen well and act accordingly. They have their code of conduct, but there is something more to these expectations.
 
If we want to understand these demands about lending without expectation of repayment, praying and blessing those who hate us, loving our enemies, and all other challenges Jesus puts forth, we need to read the ending of our passage again. God is compassionate in all these ways. God gives without expectation of being given thanks in return. God turns the other cheek when slapped. God loves those who are enemies. God blesses those who reject his love. We are invited not to judge, because God does not judge. We are not to condemn, because God does not condemn.
 
The listening disciples are told at the end of the sermon that they are building their foundation on rock and that only sound trees produce good fruit. One can appreciate a good tree by its good fruit, but the fruit is produced from the interior of the tree. What we hear is all about external actions such as lending, forgiving, blessings and enduring humiliations. The deeper meaning we are asked to listen to and hear, is the more interior sense. How we live is based on how faithful we are to our relationship with God. If God is compassionate and merciful so should we be.
 
These instructions are an invitation to try to live remembering that God offers us his divine compassion when we fail. God lends to us, blesses us, forgives us and always desires us to come to life and give that life as our way of revealing the goodness of God. What better way is there to live?
 
Have a great Sunday everyone and don’t for get to give God a little time today!