Holy Mary, Mother of Charity, Mother of all God’s children, Our Heavenly Mother, we give thee our hearts, present them to your Divine Son at this Holy Mass…. pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen!

Mark 5; 38-48 Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time. February 23, 2014

When we hear the demands of the Gospel it’s easy to become discouraged. Today’s Gospel is no different. The demands of Holiness, if not looked upon through the lens of love, seem to be an insurmountable Mountain. We can see a person who appears to be very holy, and think to ourselves, “Oh I could never be like that. I am so far away from what they are.” From there we can say, “I might as well give up.

The fact however is, that there are as many paths to holiness as there are individual souls. One persons path is not another’s. God has tailored a personal path of holiness for each person, for you and for me. And what’s more He will, through His Holy Church, provide the means for us to travel this personal path of holiness in order to reach that pinnacle of love, which is an intimate union with Him. There are no exemptions—nothing is impossible for God. Every one of us can become as holy as God wants us to be, provided we turn to Him In Love, and have recourse to the divine power of His Sacraments—the Sacraments of His Church; the Sacraments of Marriage for the married, the Sacrament of Holy Orders for the priest, and for everyone, the Sacraments of baptism, confirmation, confession, anointing of the sick for those who need it, and especially the Holy Eucharist which is the Most Blessed of all the Sacraments because it is literally Jesus Himself and His Sacred Heart living and beating, full of love for us.

Having said all of this let’s return to back to today’s Gospel. The demands of Jesus found here are some of the most difficult to carry out in all of the Scriptures. And so, in light of today’s Gospel we must ask, “how can we love our enemies, or do good to those who persecute us, or forgive those who don’t seek our forgiveness.”

Let us look at the lives of the saints to give us an example of how we can live this Gospel on a daily basis. Let’s look at the St. Therese of Lesieux. St. Therese the Little Flower had in her convent a certain sister whom she did not like and could not stand to be around. However, St. Therese prayed and begged God, to open her heart to His Divine Grace to love this annoying sister who was in a sense her “enemy.” Therese went to confession many times to ask forgiveness for her failures in kindness and in order to obtain the supernatural grace she needed to truly love this sister who was unlovable. When receiving Jesus in Holy Communion she asked Jesus to make her heart like His.

Through this, Jesus granted St. Therese His divine grace to go beyond her feelings and emotions, in order to choose to love this sister in small and simple ways. For example, Therese would thread the sewing needle for this sister; and in discussions about this sister, Therese always referred to this sister as being better than her. As a result of Therese’s heroic kindness, assisted by the grace of the Sacraments, this annoying sister actually came to believe that St. Therese was her best friend. In fact at one point the sister asked St. Therese, Sister what is that attracted you so to me? This belief of the sister, that she was St. Therese best friend, was the result of St. Therese’s human love being perfected and united to Christ own divine love in and through the Sacraments of the Church and especially prayer before the Most Blessed of all Sacraments the Holy Eucharist. It wasn’t an act, for her part Therese did grow to love this sister not only as her best friend but as her “other self.”

And so, the example of St. Therese and all of the saints along with all of our readings today offer us plenty to reflect upon in terms of proper Christian attitudes. They offer us a standard of forgiveness to which we may not be accustomed. They offer us a standard of ethical behavior that is opposite of what our society would have us practice. We would not be surprised to hear Jesus tell us in our Gospel to love our neighbor, or to be charitable to those in need, or even to forgive those around us. But today Jesus says, "Love your enemies," "Do good to those who hate you;" "Bless those who curse you, Pray for those who mistreat you." These certainly are opposed to human nature and are not something that we feel comfortable with. Again, left alone our human nature tends toward aggression; it seeks to get revenge, or to get even. This begins early in childhood. If someone pushes us, our natural reaction and emotional response is to push back. In fact at times our fallen human nature tempts us past the point of getting even, to the point of wanting to get ahead. At times it can even takes pleasure in hurting others.

That is not God’s way however, that is not what Jesus taught, and Jesus makes this very, very clear when he says, "love your enemies." "Do good to those who hate you." Jesus is not talking about any ordinary kind of love here. He is talking about Christian love-Charity. Our Western culture tends to romanticize all love in terms of warm emotional feelings for another person or personal gratification. But true Christian charity is what Jesus calls all of His followers to live, it goes beyond feelings and emotions.

Formally defined, Christian charity means to will the good of another, no matter what the circumstances. As Jesus put it, it means to act well towards even those who hate us, even to the point of praying for them. To act well towards those who hate us is not a natural human response. Like St. Therese, we will not have emotional feelings for the person who wrongs us, however, through an act of our will, assisted by God’s grace, our attitude can be one in which we truly want the best for our persecutor to the point that we ask God to bless them. (St. Stephen the first martyr blessed those who were about to stone Him; and in doing so, probably earned the grace of conversion for Saul who was leading the stoning…Saul of course later became St. Paul.)

In a little over a week, we begin Lent. Lent calls us to surrender those things from deep within ourselves that keep us from completely and without reservation following Christ, loving him above all things, so that we may love our neighbor and even our enemies as ourselves. Ultimately, Lent is not so much about giving up chocolate or coffee (which will probably just make us grumpy and irritable anyway) but is really about giving up un-Christian attitudes or un-Christian dispositions. Lent is about repentance and a change of heart. But most importantly, Lent leads us to the crucifixion, the ultimate act of self-denial and selfless love for the other.

By his passion and cross, Jesus teaches us something even more radically than just loving your friends; he teaches us what it really means to live with a divine love, to live with charity that is to lay down your life not only for your friends, but for your enemies as well. Jesus went willingly, laying down His entirety for all us when we were still at enmity (enemies) with God. It is one thing for a soldier to die for his countrymen; but it's something else entirely to think of even a common man dying for those who hate and wish to kill him

Since we earlier spoke of St. Therese the Little Flower I thought I would end with a beautiful letter from her to her mother superior, which very eloquently speaks of true Charity:

“This year, dear Mother, God has given me the grace to understand what charity is; I understood it before, it is true, but in an imperfect way. I had never fathomed the meaning of these words of Jesus; “the second commandment is LIKE the first: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” I applied myself especially to loving God, and it is in loving Him that I understood my love was not to be expressed only in words, for: “It is not those who says: ‘Lord, Lord! Who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” Jesus has revealed this will several times or I should say on almost every page of His Gospel. But at the Last Supper, when He knew the hearts of His disciples were burning with a more ardent love for Him who had just given Himself to them in the unspeakable mystery of His Eucharist, this sweet Savior wished to give them a new commandment. He said to them with inexpressionable tenderness: “A new commandment I give you that you love one another: THAT AS I HAVE LOVED YOU, YOU ALSO LOVE ONE ANOTHER. By this will all men know that you are my disciple, if you have love for one another.”

When St. Therese looked at the lives of the saints, such as her patron saint, St. Theresa of Avila, Therese thought to herself she could never climb the mountain of holiness such as these giants of holiness did. And so, in her great littleness she thought of an idea. Since she was so little and couldn’t climb that high, she would take an elevator to the summit in order to be united with Jesus in love. The elevator became known as her “Little Way.”

Her “Little Way,” was merely the Gospel message, that Jesus doesn’t demand great things of us, but only little things done with great love. Holiness merely consists of being faithful to Jesus in the everyday ordinary duties and events everyday life, both our physical duties as a wife and mother, father and husband, son and daughter, as an employee and student, or what ever occupation we are in at the moment; and as well especially, our faithfulness to our daily spiritual duties, such as daily prayer like the Holy Rosary and the morning offering. Holiness consists as well, as St. Therese taught us, in loving one another by putting up with all the shortcomings of each other and showing mercy to one another in our families (and by the way in our parish families as well). By doing all of these things in a spirit of love and penance, assisted by the grace of the Sacraments and prayer, especially prayer in front of the Holy Eucharist, offering all we do to Jesus through Mary in union with St. Joseph, anyone, anyone, including you and me, can most definitely attain the highest levels of holiness, which is the highest levels of love and happiness. And through our holiness of life we can become great instruments of mercy and love for the conversion of our world, and so the conversion and the salvation of countless souls.

Let us pray: Jesus at this Holy Mass and through all of Your incredible Sacraments, we beg of you for the grace we need to live what you have asked of us—you ask us to love those whom humanly speaking we do not love and to love one another by putting up with all the shortcomings of each other and showing mercy to one another. Let us all know that Holiness is for all of us and that you yourself will accompany us along the path of Holiness and provide for what we lack, provided that we turn to you for help in daily prayer and especially through the Sacraments of Your Holy Church. Please give us your own love, your own Sacred Heart at Holy Communion, so that we may love--with true charity--not only our friends, but our enemies as well. Help us desire to become great saints, that is, great friends of yours and so great friends of one another. Holy Mary, Mother of Charity, Mother of all God’s children, Our Heavenly Mother, we give thee our hearts, present them to your Divine Son at this Holy Mass…. pray for us now and at the hour of our death. Amen!