7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)
Leviticus 19:1-2,17-18 | Psalm 102(103):1-4,8,10,12-13 | 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 | Matthew 5:38-48
Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. (1 Corinthians 3:18)
I love answering questions on Quora because I love challenging myself to research topics and scenarios in far more areaa than I could ever encounter in real life. I also love sharing what I already know with others…which makes discovering that my knowledge base has significant holes in it both exhilarating and embarrassing in equal measure.
For instance, I answered a question yesterday on a database language (SQL) that I use pretty much every day. I confidently responded that what the questioner wanted wasn’t possible, then hit Submit.
Then, out of curiosity, I looked at other answers to the question…and discovered that I’d completely forgotten about a particular SQL fact that not only did the trick, but had also been standardized back when I started learning it! Oh, if I could only headslap myself…
Stupid, stupid, STUPID!
✞ ✞ ✞ ✞ ✞
The same could be said for the very faith we profess.
“Love God with all our being, and love others as ourselves.” It’s short, sharp and easy to remember.
So why do we find ourselves lost at sea when we encounter “neighbours” whom we’ve been called by Jesus Himself to love:
- the quarreling couple down the hallway,
- the forlorn and hungry beggar sitting along a footbridge,
- the shrieking child driving his parents (and all the other train passengers) insane,
- the tired cleaner who accidentally spills curry gravy on us?
What stops us from reaching out to make peace, to help, to console, to forgive?
Is it our “knowledge” that:
- “if I try to calm them down, both of them will turn on me”,
- “if he’s hungry, he can go find himself a job”,
- “it’s their kid, not mine, so not my business”,
- “you can’t even lift a bowl properly, why are you in this line of work”?
Perhaps we should think twice about overthinking the issues.
Perhaps we should instead ask God to inspire us to help in the most appropriate way.
Let us be fools for God’s heavenly love, instead of sages in our mortal domains.
Amen.