Scripture meditation for the Daily Gospel

REFLECTION ON THE DAILY GOSPEL AND READINGS 18 JUNE 2013

/ Michael J. Cunningham / Leave a comment

By asking us to love our enemies, God doesn’t ask us to like what bad things or sins they may force on us. But He does ask us to love them. How can we possibly head out on that path? Well, I think that He wants to always be close to Him, and if we have hatred in our heart, then that separates us from Him.

So by the examples in the readings and Gospel today, we are instructed to “love our enemies”, to pray for them, to have no animosity towards them, so they may become closer to God.

If, as some experts in Spirituality propose, that our consciousness is a gift from God to feel His presence, then we surely offend Him if our conscious thoughts are malignant and hateful. These thoughts separate us from Him, and that’s not a good thing.

Let us pray today to bring ourselves to a place of love and peace with the Lord and leave all those feelings of animosity and hatred behind in the trash can of our spiritual past.

REFLECTION ON THE DAILY GOSPEL AND READINGS 17 JUNE 2013

/ Michael J. Cunningham / Leave a comment

How do we move our hearts into a place where offer “no resistance” to those who are evil to us? I don’t think God is instructing us not to protect ourselves or those who may hurt us in a time of war or peril, but rather to have a open heart to all those who do evil and add pain to our lives.

I see this as almost having “forgiveness” built into to our nature, we do not judge, we might pray for those who are afflicted with “an uncaring heart” or “nature”. Of course we know that these things are also often a product of others treatment of them, either instructing them poorly, or setting an example that is not what God would want.

Today, perhaps we can examine who are treating in a less than forgiving way, that may lead us towards a purer heart.

REFLECTION ON THE DAILY GOSPEL 14 JUNE 2013

/ Michael J. Cunningham / Leave a comment

What is Jesus saying to us in this seemingly straightforward message, one that sends terror through the hearts of many. At one level He tells us that our thoughts matter, what we think can lead us to good or evil, once we dwell on those thoughts we turn them from thoughts to desires, and desires eventually turn into passions that we act on.

These thoughts can be good or bad, if they are temptations, as those in the Gospel today, Jesus tells us to throw them out and get rid of them. What is in our heart is what will join or separate ourselves from God. Jesus does not make it simple, even marriage is forever, an almost alien concept in today’s secular society.

Jesus wants us to have an interior dedication to Him in our hearts that will shine through in our daily lives to all others around us. Appearing to be good is not the same as being good in our hearts. It is not enough for Him, he wants all of us.