THURSDAY, TWENTY THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Col 3: 12-17 Ps 150: 1-6 Lk 6: 27-38
A MUCH NEEDED REMINDER
There are days when we wake up feeling unworthy. The weight of our failures, and the words we wish we could take back settle on us like a fog. Yet, in today’s reading, Paul wakes us up to remind us who we really are, not by our own merit but by God’s mercy – chosen, holy and beloved. Paul does not just motivate us into wishful thinking. Rather, he calls us to remember what has already been done for us. We are no longer who we were! Our old selves have been put off and now we dress ourselves in something new. But what?
Put on compassion, he says. Not a feeling of sympathy but the kind that prompts us to place ourselves in the place of those who are suffering. Put on kindness, he adds. Not the kind that makes us feel good but restore dignity in those who need it. Wear humility, he says, not self-pity but the quiet strength to let go of being right all the time. Wear gentleness, he says, in a world that often demands hardness. Wear patience, he says, to love people for what they are; not wishing for what we would want them to be.
Paul then takes us another step! He tells us to bear with one another, to realize that we are not perfect ourselves and neither are our enemies. They need to be forgiven not because they deserve it but because Christ forgave us when we did not! Paul then says to put on love, the love that seeks the good of the other. It is this love that binds our fragmented selves into one happy child of God! Paul gives us some advice after. He says to let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts. What is this peace? This peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of Christ even amid tribulations. It is the joy that comes when he dwells deep within us. This passage is not some suggestion. It is a reminder of who we are and whose we are. Let us remind ourselves that and wait for the change of perception of life!
Response: Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
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