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Homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time 

Read: (Lev 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Cor 3: 16-23; Matt 5: 38-48)

Reflect: Perfection of life consists in - holiness, being God’s temple and in restoration of lost relationships… 

My dear friends, today we are in the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, a Sunday prior to the season of lent. The readings of the day invites us prepare ourselves well before we could enter the season of Lent. We all of us look for a perfect life or a harmonious life on earth. Such a life can become a possibility when we practice ways pertinent to holiness, being God’s temple of God and restoring the lost relationship by acts of love and forgiveness. So based on the liturgy of the word I would like to share with you three points of reflection; 

1. A call to Holiness: 

Holiness is a call of every Christian. It is everyone’s priority and privilege and not by few individuals. The first reading calls us to be holy as the Lord our God is holy. Today’s first reading is taken from the book of Leviticus 19: 1-2 and 17-18. But if we could see the verses of Lev 19: 3-16 speaks of lots of do’s and don’ts that Yahweh gives to his people through Moses. The do’s and don’ts are observance of laws and acts pertinent to God and his people

Yes, holiness is not attained just by being ritually strict or following laws. Much more than these, holiness is to be considered as a way of life and is to attained in every word and deed.  That’s why the first reading very clearly emphasize not to hate one another in heart, no vengeance, no grudge but to love others as oneself. So holiness is not a life that is obtained only be following rituals and laws of life but by loving God and others sincerely.

We also need to remember that holiness is a call to cleanliness, the cleanliness of body, mind and heart. Some may hold a view that if I follow all rituals and laws I am clean. It need not necessarily be. Because rituals and laws at times bind us or imprison us when we are not moderate enough or extremely practice it. Holiness is obtained when we do not hate but love, when we do not take revenge but reconcile, when we do not have a grudge or complain but accept and understand others as they are. 

Pope Francis very fittingly shared to the contemplative nuns of Madagascar that “The path to holiness is made up of small, daily acts of obedience and love.” He further said, “I know that all of you cloistered nuns have come to be close to the Lord, to seek the way of perfection. But the way to perfection is found in these small steps on the way of obedience, small steps of charity and love. With steps that seem nothing.” Yes, it’s true and applies to all of us too today. The path to holiness and perfection are not in great or gigantic things that we imagine or mega and massive projects or acts that we do but it begins with smalls acts of love, kindness and obedience. So let us love, obey and be kind to all, keep our hearts pure and holy

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2. A call to be God’s temple: 

We all know that temple is a place of holiness and a dwelling place for God. God dwells in it, because God is pleased. We firmly believe too that God dwells in churches or in our worship places. Perhaps God does not wish or require a dwelling structure made by human hands but it’s the goodness and humility of God that he dwells in structures made by us. If the temple is not fit, unholy or not prepared to meet the requirements for God to dwell, the Lord won’t stay in a unfit or unholy place. So we need to prepare a temple fit for God to dwell, either it’s a structure of walls made by human hand or within the structure of human persons, the heart.  So that he can stay in, make us steady and strong to reflect God’s light and love to one another. 

That’s what St. Paul in his letter to First Corinthians reminds us, “Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy and you are that temple.” Yes, we are temples of God, because the Holy Spirit is within us. We are reminded to reflect the temple of God in our lives by the very lives that we live and lead. Just as the heart of the church is the sanctuary where God dwells, so also the core of human person is the heart, where God’s Spirit stays and resides. The one whose heart is clean, the Lord stays and takes complete possession. The one whose heart is unclean or makes the heart of another unclean, the Lord punishes or destroys them, because, no one is given the power or entitled to defile the dwelling place of God, the heart. 

We also hear further, in St. Paul’s letter to Ephesians “Not to make the Holy Spirit sad. God gave you his Spirit as proof that you belong to him and that he will keep you safe until the day he makes you free,” (Eph 4:30). Today, we make unholy the temple of God, the residence of God in human heart by various ways and means. We make the human heart, the temple of God unclean and unholy by words that are harmful, hurting and hateful or by deeds of unkindness, disloyalty and disobedience to God, parents, elders, equals and to the little ones in the family or society. So today let us ensure God that we build the human heart, the residence of God with holy words and ways, with qualities of love, forgiveness and compassion. Let us learn to respect the temple of God in us and treasure it with goodness and positive vibes. 

3. A call to perfection:

Perfection is a sign of spiritual maturity or fullness of life in harmony with God and with one another. It is also a fulfillment or accomplishment of life for what we are created or born. Most of us try to get Mr. Perfect certificate, knowing the fact that we are imperfect and are called for perfection of life. However, our life journey is a call for perfection and we must make efforts to move towards perfection of life by making efforts to get rid of imperfections in life. 

Last Sunday the four formulas of anti-thesis or opposites in the Sermon on the Mount were presented. In today’s Gospel reading we have the other two anti-thesis of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard it was said… Now I tell you.” The first formula of anti-thesis is “not to resist the one who is evil with evil” and the second is “love enemies and to pray for those who persecute you.” We know that “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth” was a maxim that we have it in Deuteronomy 19: 18-21. It was put as a limit to vengeance or revenge in order to defend the members against those who abuse the weak. But Jesus brings in a better understanding “not to oppose the evil with evil but do good to those who do evil.” 

It is a pointer to do extra-ordinary things in an ordinary way. The reason why I say extra-ordinary is because the acts that Jesus demands from us require extra efforts. Jesus demands from us extra-ordinary acts by saying, no eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn him the other too. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus makes us realize it is very easy and ordinary for all of us to love those who love us. We do nothing more than the ordinary, because we do it because they return to us what we give them. This is what the tax-collectors or the gentiles do and in what way we are not different from them.  

Today we all know and learnt solidarity or support to those who belong to the same group of human beings, birds, animals, nature, clan, region, religion, and profession or any other natural or social boundary that separates us is a natural instinct or feel. We do it casually and effortlessly, because each one belongs to the respective group or nature. But what about going out of the way, entering into the nature of the other or the character feature of the other which are so specific and unique to each one of us? It is hard and tough. But Jesus lays before us such difficult task and a hard process to refine life and make it fine and perfect. 

It is not very easy to love the one who hates or to forgive the one who hurts us; it is not easy to give anyone who does not have a willing and loving heart to give; it is not easy to tread the path which someone has never tried to tread. It requires courage and will power to do such things. Jesus makes us realize and helps us to obtain such path leading to perfection and fullness of life.

Today we have learnt it by experience that perfection does not happen all of a sudden. It takes time. It is slow and steady progress but a sure progress with ups and downs. Perfection in life is not obtained by ordinary efforts but extra-ordinary acts and efforts that shape and shake us, melt and mould us, strengthen and give thus a perfect shape so beautiful and blissful. That’s why Jesus says, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

It is a plain fact that none of us can become as perfect as our heavenly Father is but what we all can do is to make efforts to come closer to the perfection of our heavenly father, by doing extra-ordinary efforts and acts. Jesus showed such examples of perfection in life. Jesus loved and forgave the ones who hurt and crucified him on the cross. He accepted the betrayal and denial of Judas and Peter. He forgave the people crucified him, saying, “Father forgive them they do not know what they are doing,” (Lk 23:34).

These acts show that though Jesus was perfect in everything, showed us ways and means of obtaining perfection and fullness of life by doing extra ordinary things in ordinary ways, going beyond our natural and social frontiers to obtain such perfection of life. Similarly, if we want to reach the state of perfection and fullness of life in God, we need to do extra-ordinary things ordinarily with courage and confidence in God, crossing the limits of natural or social boundaries of life to be one with nature and the humanity as one family. 

Very appropriately Pope Francis says “There is no perfect family. We have no perfect parents, we are not perfect, not married to a perfect person, and neither do we have perfect children. We have complaints about each other. We are disappointed by one another. Therefore, there is no healthy marriage or healthy family without the exercise of forgiveness. Forgiveness is vital to our emotional health and spiritual survival.” 

Yes, it applies to every one of us as we too are not perfect. But our call to perfection demands that we learn our imperfections and gradually get rid of them to live a perfect life. The two formula of antithesis in the Gospel “to oppose the evil with good and to love those who hate or hurt” remind us the same that we are not perfect and called to perfect life. One of the ways to obtain perfection of life consists in the restoration of relationships and forgiveness of the other from the heart. Only such acts can bring perfect harmony in life and can lead us to perfection, the fulfillment of life and the fullness of life as God’s children, sharing the image and likeness of God. 

Respond:

Do we practice holiness by rituals and laws or by acts of love and kindness?

Do we manifest the temple of God in us with acts pleasing to God?

Do we make efforts to become perfect even in the midst of many imperfections we see or experience? 

So let us be holy as God is holy, be the living temples of God’s spirit and live a perfect life by knowing and learning our imperfections and gradually getting rid of them to fulfil life’s purpose and journey. Amen. 

God bless us all! Live Jesus!

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com

9500930968