Sunday February 20, 2022

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

Love Even Your Enemies

Greeting (See 2 Cor 5:18)

It was God who reconciled us
to himself in Christ
and gave us the work
of handing on this reconciliation.
May the forgiving Lord be with you. R/ And also with you.

Introduction by the Celebrant

If we are capable of doing it by the grace of God, there is perhaps nothing that brings us closer to God and makes us most like him than the readiness to forgive and the aptitude to love even enemies. These are so contrary to our feelings of not wanting to be anyone’s fool or doormat. And yet, the gospel insists: You who were God’s enemies, you who have been forgiven, forgive, be reconciled, be merciful as your heavenly Father is merciful.

Penitential Act

God is patient with us.
We can always go to him and be forgiven.
Now we ask him and one another to forgive us.
                        (pause)
Lord Jesus, you reassure us
that the Father has forgotten our sins.
We cannot forget that others have hurt us:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Jesus Christ, through you
the Father turned us, people who acted as his enemies,

into friends he loves
For us it is hard to be reconciled:
Christ, have mercy. R/ Christ, have mercy.

Lord Jesus, you came not to condemn
but to save what was lost.
We easily judge and condemn:
Lord, have mercy. R/ Lord, have mercy.

Have mercy on us, Lord,
and keep forgiving us all our sins.
Make us grateful and merciful,
and lead us to everlasting life. R/ Amen.

Opening Prayer

Let us pray to the Father in heaven
to give us a bit of his goodness
and loving mercy
                        (pause)
Lord God, merciful Father,
you let your Son ask of us
by his word and example
not to render evil for evil
and to become available to anyone
who makes demands on us.
Make us fully aware that this is
what you and Jesus have done for us.
Let your Holy Spirit inspire us
with a strong trust in your merciful love
and help us to become a bit like you,
who are always better to us
than we can be to others.
Grant us this through Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

First Reading (1 Sam 26:2,7-9,12-13,22-23): A Man with a Great Heart

David is a fugitive from Saul’s revenge. When he has Saul in his power, he spares his life, for the king’s life is sacred. God’s mercy becomes visible in David.

Reading 1: 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23

In those days, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph
with three thousand picked men of Israel,
to search for David in the desert of Ziph.
So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night
and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade,
with his spear thrust into the ground at his head
and Abner and his men sleeping around him.

Abishai whispered to David:
“God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day.
Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear;
I will not need a second thrust!”
But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him,
for who can lay hands on the LORD’s anointed and remain unpunished?”
So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s         head,
and they got away without anyone’s seeing or knowing or awakening.
All remained asleep,
because the LORD had put them into a deep slumber.

Going across to an opposite slope,
David stood on a remote hilltop
at a great distance from Abner, son of Ner, and the troops.
He said: “Here is the king’s spear.
Let an attendant come over to get it.
The LORD will reward each man for his justice and faithfulness.
Today, though the LORD delivered you into my grasp,
I would not harm the LORD’s anointed.”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13

(8a) The Lord is kind and merciful.
Bless the LORD, O my soul;
and all my being, bless his holy name.
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
He pardons all your iniquities,
heals all your ills.
He redeems your life from destruction,
crowns you with kindness and compassion.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
Merciful and gracious is the LORD,
slow to anger and abounding in kindness.
Not according to our sins does he deal with us,
nor does he requite us according to our crimes.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.
As far as the east is from the west,
so far has he put our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.
R. The Lord is kind and merciful.

Second Reading: We Have to Become Like Christ

We tend to follow merely our natural human inclinations. Christ is our model; he shows us in himself the kind of spiritual persons we are called to become and he gives us the strength to do so.

Reading 2: 1 Cor 15:45-49

Brothers and sisters:
It is written, The first man, Adam, became a living being,
the last Adam a life-giving spirit.
But the spiritual was not first;
rather the natural and then the spiritual.
The first man was from the earth, earthly;
the second man, from heaven.
As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly,
and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.
Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

Alleluia: Jn 13:34

Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment, says the Lord:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Be Compassionate as Your Father Is Compassionate

Jesus and his gospel are a constant challenge to go beyond a merely human code in dealing with other people. He calls us to follow him on his radical way, with the merciful love of God for us as our model.

Gospel Lk: 6:27-38

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.”

Intercessions

Our Father in heaven has been very good to us. Let us pray that his merciful love may mark our relationships toward everyone and let us say: R/ Lord, let us share in your mercy.

–          For all Christians, that our readiness to forgive and our constant quest for tolerance and peace may point to Christ and his gospel, let us pray: R/ Lord, let us share in your mercy.

–          For all those who can hardly believe in forgiveness, for those who give others no new opportunities, for those who keep holding grudges, for those blinded and hardened by hatred, that God may bring them mercy, let us pray: R/ Lord, let us share in your mercy.

–          For all the nations of the world, that their goal may not be political or economic domination but universal solidarity and friendship, with respect for each other’s rights and interests, let us pray: R/ Lord, let us share in your mercy.

–          For persecutors and enemies of those who believe, that the merciful God may forgive them and open their eyes to the creative love of God’s plans for every human being, let us pray: R/ Lord, let us share in your mercy.

–          For our Christian communities, that we may hear the call of Jesus to do away with our division and selfishness, and that we may overcome evil by goodness, let us pray : R/ Lord, let us share in your mercy.

Merciful Father, you still love those who have been thankless and disloyal to you—and that includes us. Help us to give ourselves as you do, that you may be our Father now and for ever. R/ Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Lord God, merciful Father,
you set for us the table of your Son
as a sign of your love open to all
in a world without pity.
As we have accepted your invitation,
may we also accept all its consequences,
that your compassionate love
may become flesh and blood in us,
weak and fallible people,
and benefit friend and foe alike
by the strength of Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Introduction to the Eucharistic Prayer

We join Jesus in his sacrifice by which he brought us God’s forgiving mercy. May this sacrifice fill us with God’s pardon and dispose us to forgive others.

Invitation to the Lord’s Prayer

Let us pray to our Father in heaven
that we may forgive as we have been forgiven
and give as we have received from him.
Let us say with Jesus: R/ Our Father...

Invitation to the Rite of Peace

In answer to the call of Jesus,
let us forget our differences and our selfishness
and wish each other peace, joy and friendship.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.
R/ And also with you.

Invitation to Communion

This is Jesus our Lord,

who is the model

of all that we are called to be

and who leads us to our merciful Father.

Happy are we to be invited to his supper.

R/ Lord, I am not worthy...

Prayer after Communion

Lord God, loving Father,
you have given us here in your Son
the full measure of your love.
Let your Son be our strength
helping us to learn to give and to forgive one another
with your own extravagant measure,
that we may be your sons and daughters
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R/ Amen.

Blessing

In this Eucharistic celebration
Jesus has spoken to us a demanding message.
Let us not take his words
as oratorical exaggerations
but as a challenge demanding an answer.
If we call on a merciful God,
we are obliged to be merciful.
And if we are afraid this is above our forces,
be assured that we can do it
with the strength and blessing of almighty God,
the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.

Let us go with one another

the Lord’s road of peace.

R/ Thanks be to God.

Commentary 

Read:

David gets yet another opportunity to eliminate the enemy, King Saul. But David lets him live, acknowledging that Saul’s consecration came from God, even when Saul did not live up to its billing. Paul contrasts the two Adams but reminds us that we carry both of them within us. Jesus defines love as going beyond the mere call of duty and being generous without distinction between friend or foe.

Reflect:

In his play No Exit (Huis Clos), Jean-Paul Sartre famously remarked: “Hell is other people.” The opposite could also be true: “Heaven is other people.” It all depends upon what you want to see and experience in the other. As David saw, we could see God’s anointing in the other, even when the life of the other seems to contradict it. As Paul suggests, we could look into the other and see the image of the New Adam even when the Old Adam seems to run amok. Such perspective will help us do what Jesus wants us to do: Love even our enemies, be generous with everyone, do not judge but forgive, and share our life generously.

Pray:

“Lord, teach us to love as you love us.”

Act:

Reach out and reconcile with someone who has hurt you deeply.

Reflection taken from Bible Diary 2022;

written by Fr.Paulson Velyannoor, CMF

Coffee With God : If not merciful, a priest should not hear Confessions