Sunday, 2/23/14
The first reading today speaks of God as out Lord. We are
used to calling God our Lord, but we do not behave ourselves like God is the
lord of our lives.
The first reading tells us that we must be holy because our
lord is holy. That is saying that by acknowledging someone as our lord we are
binding ourselves to imitating that person. Like the reading says, “we must be
holy because our lord is holy.” In the Middle Ages when people lived in total
subjection to their temporal lords they advertised their need to imitate him by
wearing that man’s livery.
In the Gospel Jesus is in the role of or lord who has the
right to be obeyed. As our lord he commands, “I say to you, love your enemies!”
I don’t care for the way our English Bibles present Our
Lord’s final words. They have him saying, “Be perfect, just as you heavenly
Father is perfect.” The Greek word Matthew used there, telios, means complete or well rounded, not perfect. None of us can
be perfect the way God is perfect, but we can aspire to be as well rounded, to
be as kind, to be as open, and to be as industrious as our flawed nature lets
us be.
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