W e are called to the holiness of God. That is the extraordinary claim made in both the First Reading and Gospel this Sunday. Yet how is possible that we
can be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect? Jesus explains
that we must be imitators of God as His beloved children.
As God does, we must love without limit, with a love that does
not distinguish between friend and foe, overcoming evil with
good. Jesus Himself, in His Passion and death, gave us the
perfect example of the love that we are called to. He offered no
resistance to the evil, even though He could have commanded
twelve legions of angels to fight alongside Him. He offered His
face to be struck and spit upon. He allowed His garments to be
stripped from Him. He marched as His enemies compelled Him
to the Place of the Skull. On the cross He prayed for those who
persecuted Him.
In all this He showed Himself to be the perfect Son of God. By
His grace, and through our imitation of Him, He promises that
we too can become children of our heavenly Father.
God does not deal with us as we deserve, as we sing in this
week’s Psalm. He loves us with a Father’s love. He saves us
from ruin. He forgives our transgressions. He loved us even
when we had made ourselves His enemies through our
sinfulness. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
We have been bought with the price of the blood of God’s only
Son. We belong to Christ now, as St. Paul says in this week’s
Epistle. By our baptism, we have we have been made temples
of His Holy Spirit. And we have been saved to share in His
holiness and perfection. So let us glorify Him by our lives lived
in His service, loving as He loves.
Dr. S. Hahn.
(excerpt: salvationhistory.com)
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