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Home Sections The Daily B.R.E.A.D. June 16, 2009 - Tuesday Meditation (Test the Genuineness of Your Love!)
June 16, 2009 - Tuesday Meditation (Test the Genuineness of Your Love!) PDF Print E-mail
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Sections - The Daily B.R.E.A.D.
Written by Bobot Apit   
Friday, 12 June 2009 03:27
L ove our enemies? Unrealistic? It can’t be – must not be! As St. Paul says at the end of the first reading “. . . test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others.” All others. Even enemies.

2 Corinthians 8:1-9
Psalm 146:2, 5-6ab, 6c- 7, 8-9a

M atthew 5:43-48 "You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' (44) But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (46) For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? (47) And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? (48) You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.


    
* Meditation by Robert P. Heaney
 
“. . . love your enemies . . .”.

A lmost everyone is familiar with that command. And almost everybody thinks that, while perhaps an ideal, it is hopelessly unrealistic. Maybe. But maybe some context might help us understand how central this really is to being Christian.

What, after all, does it mean to be Christian? Not to save ourselves, as perhaps we once thought. God has done that for us. No, our job is to continue the work of Jesus – the Jesus who called people to change their priorities and submit to God’s gentle reign. Christians are a community of disciples, having disciple roles, and doing disciple work.

We need to ask ourselves: If someone is mean and hateful and spiteful, self-centered and angry – in short, our enemy – do we want that person to go into eternal damnation? We can’t want that. Jesus gives Himself for that person, just as much as He does for me. Jesus counts on us to help that person accept the love God offers. How can that person know of God’s forgiveness if he doesn’t experience it in me?

But love our enemies? Once again, we bump up against the inadequacies of translations. “Love” here is not a matter of warm fuzzy feelings or the affection of friendship. The verb used by Matthew might be better translated as “to care about”, or “to be concerned about”, “to care enough to want to help”. It’s with that kind of care and concern that Jesus and Stephen prayed for those who were killing them. Saving such individuals is precisely why Jesus came and why we’re Christians.

From my vantage point, there is a big difference between me and my persecutor, between me and the terrorist bomber, between me and the child rapist. But the simple fact is that both of us are equally in need of God’s saving love, which God freely gives, as this passage from Matthew clearly attests. Our heavenly Father causes His sun and rain to fall upon the good and the bad, the just and the unjust.

Love our enemies? Unrealistic? It can’t be – must not be! As St. Paul says at the end of the first reading “. . . test the genuineness of your love by your concern for others.” All others. Even enemies.



Supplementary Reading
Music of the Master

For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. – Ephesians 2:10




A young man visited a church one Sunday and heard an organ offertory being played. After the service, he asked if he might play the organ.

"Oh, no—only our church organist plays that instrument," came the reply.

The young man persisted. Reluctantly, they agreed to let him play. He carefully set all the stops and then began playing the very piece that had been played during the offertory. Those who lingered after the service stopped to listen. When he finished, the onlookers applauded.

"What’s your name?" the church organist asked.

"Johann Sebastian Bach," he replied. "I wrote that music!"

"To think we nearly missed hearing the real music because I wouldn't let the master play this instrument," she sighed.

You are an instrument of God's love. Jesus Christ is the Master. Let him make lovely music in this world through you.



* * *

The New Living Translation translates the phrase in Ephesians 2:10, "God's handiwork" as "God's masterpiece." You are a work of art! Describe yourself as God's masterpiece.

* * *
    

Note: This excerpt was taken from the "Power for Life Daily Devotional"


GOD BLESS US ALL!

PRAY as if everything depended on HIM. ACT as if everything depended on YOU.



 

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