Scripture Reflections for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Year C, Lectionary 81
Our enemies may drive us to hate, judgment and retaliation but Jesus guides us to a higher perspective. We are led to see that person as also a child of God. And as children of God we have all received mercy and forgiveness from God and are meant to share that love to others.
Hate feeling lost on Sundays at church? Searching for a better explanation of the Bible than what you hear from your pastor's sermon? Check out the following collection of audio, video, and text commentaries from various Christian experts for a better understanding of today's scripture that deal with: Adam • Choice • Compassion • Courage • David • Dignity • Enemy • Faith • Forgive • Freedom • Generosity • Gift • Hate • Holy Spirit • Hope • Judgment • Justice • Listen • Love • Martyr • Mercy • Morality • Parent • Prayer • Reconciliation • Repent • Retaliate • Saul • Sight • Sin • Teach • Transformation • Violence • Wisdom •
“at some point in our lives we're all going to be Saul: broken, vulnerable, and nevertheless anointed by God”
“Paul is emphasizing on Jesus' role as the one who is going to restore creation. As the one who inaugurates a new creation. As the one who liberates fallen humanity from original sin, the sin of Adam and all of its effects”
“This kind of love is not measured by what we hope to receive in return but by the boundless mercy we have already been given”
“even when we did not deserve it, mercy is all the Father ever gives. For in God's household mercy is never the wrong choice.”
“There is nothing that the Lord asks of us that is not for a purpose, for a divine purpose”
“It's a radical love that is calling for in the golden rule, it is counterintuitive. It is not irrational, it's super rational because it's supernatural.”
“For every disciple who hears and acts on Jesus's words, for every person who pours himself out, for every believer who refuses to judge, hate, condemn or get even, there is someone who is on the receiving end of that action”
“'Turn the other cheek' then, in Roman occupied Galilee 2,000 years ago, isn't about passivity but responding to violence and injustice with resistance, courage and God-given human dignity”
“This is the 'other cheek that we turn': we make great sacrifice, even to our very selves, in order to help another person grow closer to Christ”
“In today’s gospel, Jesus is calling for a change of heart, a new way of thinking, a new way of looking at life”
“Whoever lives the life of a Christian and says it is easy, is not doing the right thing”
“See, because if you will never forget then you have never heard in your spiritual walk about the river or the sea of forgetfulness”
“real faith is caught and not taught. Real faith is hanging on by the example we set for our children and how we show them to live out what it means to truly be Christians in this world.”
“Instead of hating have you ever tried to love, love like David did on that opposite side of the hill and said 'touch not God's anointed?'”
“Jesus is also challenging us who are Christians to show our superiority over the world, to rise above the standard of the world by being kind even to our enemies”
“the Lord gives us many opportunities to grow in virtue and he gives us the Holy Spirit to realize that we can conquer ourselves, we can have victory over ourselves through Christ”
