Daily Gospel Reflection
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September 12, 2019
Jesus said to his disciples:
“But I say to you that listen, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.
“But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
“Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams,” wrote Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Brothers Karamozov. In today’s first reading, we are told to “put on love,” and today’s gospel is perhaps an extended definition of the love to which Paul in his letter to the Colossians alludes. This love, as Luke describes it, is not the warm, emotive love of dreams. It is a harsh (and incredibly hard) series of actions: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
It is harsh and difficult because of whom we are called to love: our enemies, those who hate, curse, and mistreat us, those who strike us and who take from us. But there is difficulty, too, in how we are called to love—in other words, in the quality of the action verbs that characterize this love. We are not called to simply retreat from or avoid those who work against us, or to maintain a position of neutrality. We are called to literally exert ourselves in their favor. Christ tells us to “do good,” to “bless,” to “pray,” to “give,” to “lend,” and to do all of this without any expectation of reciprocity. This is love in action: selfless, unnoticed labor in service to others, even those who actively work against us.
We will most certainly stumble along the path to love as it is described in Luke’s Gospel. The struggle of it all, though, might actually be the point. For in the labor of loving our enemies, we can’t help but lean more heavily on Christ and the image of the Cross—the emblem of the most selfless, unreciprocated labor of love in Christian history. And what we come to see, as we lean in, is that it was never really about us and them anyway. It was and is always about our relationship with God and God’s heavenly Kingdom that we are building one act of generosity at a time.
Prayer
Lord God, whose love is our forgiveness, teach us that forgiveness is not about you changing hearts but about us changing from a rock-hard heart to a human heart. Jesus on the cross said what we too should say of everyone who offends us: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.” Let us love the sinner but hate the sin. Love recognizes that loved people love people and only hurt people hurt people. Help us to comprehend your fatherly love that is your merciful forgiveness.
Saint of the Day
Today marks the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, a Marian feast day that has experienced several reversals in popularity. The feast of the Holy Name of Mary was first celebrated in Spain in 1513 but removed from the calendar by both Pius V and Benedict XIV. It was finally reintroduced by Innocent XI in 1683 after the Holy Roman Empire’s victory in the Battle of Vienna on September 12, 1683, which gives the current feast day its calendar date.
So what does Mary’s name mean, and why is it worth honoring?
The name “Mary” is the anglicized version of the Hebrew name Miryam, often written in biblical Greek as Mariam. Miryam is the name of Moses’ sister who praises God’s deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt and their safe passage through the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20-21), a psalm similar to Mary’s powerful hymn to God’s saving power in her Magnificat (Lk 1:46-55). As Jesus is rendered in the Gospels as the new Moses (Mt 2:13-15, 7:29, JN 6: 48-51), so Mary is portrayed as the new Miryam, the helpmate of Israel’s savior and a leader of her people. Interpretations of her name by biblical scholars and theologians vary widely—some notable examples include Source of Light, Scent of the Sea, and Star of the Sea. Developed in the 16th century in the Italian town of Loreto, the Litany of Loreto catalogs many devotional titles Catholics have applied to Mary, celebrating both her unique role in Salvation History and the beauty of her love for God, from which so many graces flow to us.
Names have a sacred status in the Judeo-Christian tradition. The second of the Ten Commandments requires Israel to keep holy the name of the Lord God. A name is more than just a label; it is part of the person who bears it. Our reverence for the person is reflected in our reverence for his or her name. Our names contain our identities and represent our mission—who and what we are to the world. Mary’s name holds the meaning of her own mission: to lead the world to the light of the world. Mary’s name given in the scriptures reminds us of God’s works of love and deliverance in history and speaks powerfully of who God desires her to be for us.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux writes that Mary is a “clear and shining star, twinkling with excellencies and resplendent with example, needfully set to look down upon the surface of this great and wide sea.” In life, we are constantly “battered to and fro by the gales and storms of this life’s ocean.” In the midst of life’s hurricanes and stormy waves, Bernard enjoins us to “look to the star, call on Mary. ...If she lead thee, thou wilt never be weary. If she help thee thou wilt reach home at last.”
As we pray to and with the name of Mary, as we call to mind her name, may we remember that we are not on the journey of faith alone. And when the storms are particularly troublesome and the night is especially dark, may we look to the Mary, the star that perpetually shines and ceaselessly guides us to the source of her light, her son.
Mary, Star of the Sea and light who guides our way to Christ—pray for us!