St. Paul asks us to become slaves to goodness. Jesus points out that this might lead to division in our home, but it is better than a fake peace which favors the status quo.
As Christians, are we to go out preach the Good News, making people listen, or do we preach with our lives, inspiring others to follow, and not worrying about those who do not want to hear?
On this memorial of the guardian angels, we acknowledge that there is much more to creation than we understand, and that part of that is that God has created an angel for each of us who knows us and individually looks out for us.
In the readings, the world seems turned upside down as St. Paul rejoices in suffering and the scribes and the Pharisees are enraged at goodness. But St. Paul is really rejoicing in how his suffering reveals God's mercy to the gentiles, and the Pharisees simply refuse to embrace God's mercy.
The prophet Ezekiel tells the son on man that he has an obligation to warn sinners of the error of their way. We have an obligation to share our knowledge of God with the spiritually poor as surely as we need to share our wealth with the financially poor.
Jesus tells us to "Be Perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP tells us this is not some impossible perfection, but to be like the sun "which rises on the bad and the good." We are to let our love and mercy shine on everyone we meet.
Fr. Dominican Holtz, OP tells us that when Jesus tells us to "turn the other cheek," he is not asking us to be doormats, but to recognise our infinite worth in his eyes, and how nothing can diminish that.
Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP reminds us that none of us really know what our life is worth or what it ultimately means, because our story is never finished. It keeps going even after we die.
Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP reminds us that Jesus shared everything that he knew of the Father with us in order to deepen our friendship with God, because, friendship deepens the more we know about the other.
Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP reminds us that to embrace new life in Christ requires that something inside of us must die, such as the poisonous malice living in our hearts.
In today's Gospel, Jesus tells the people of his day who claim to have God as their Father, that if that were true, they would be living as God would have them live. Fr. Dominic Holtz, OP asks us to apply this same lesson in our own lives.
