Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (C)

         During this weekend of the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, I don’t think we would be terribly surprised if someone who heard Jesus preach what we have just heard had responded: “Get real! … Nobody’s ever going to push me around like that! … I’m not going to be someone else’s doormat. … I’m tired of always being taken advantage of! … Let’s be practical about life. … Who’s with me on this?” So, ask yourselves … are you tempted to make the very same objections right here … right now?

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Entrance Antiphon: Ps 13(12):6 — “O Lord, I trust in Your merciful love. My heart will rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the Lord who has been bountiful with me.”

First Reading: 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 — “Though the Lord delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm you.”

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13 — “The Lord is kind and merciful”

Second Reading: 1 Cor 15:45-49 — “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.”

Alleluia: Jn 13:34 — Alleluia, alleluia. “I give you a new commandment, says the Lord: love one another as I have loved you.” Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel: Lk 7:27-38 — “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”

Communion Antiphon: Ps 9:2-3 — “I will recount all Your wonders, I will rejoice in You and be glad, and sing psalms to Your name, O Most High.”

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         Jesus’ message to love one’s enemies was as much countercultural in His day as it is today in 2025. Loving those who love us is our natural inclination. The opposite approach is very difficult and offers no guarantee of success. Hence it is, to quote Robert Frost, to simply forgive when someone hurts us is often “the road less travelled.”

         Today’s First Reading shows David as a strong leader. His soldier Abishai says that David should show strength by killing King Saul, who is asleep. But David still recognizes that Saul is still the Lord’s anointed. And David later makes sure Saul realizes that he, David, has spared his life. David wasn’t always wise, but this day he was. Several future kings of Judah and Israel will, in fact, be assassinated.

         Jesus in the Gospel says that God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. We are tempted to repeat Jonah’s complaint after God forgave the people of Nineveh. Jonah said, “I knew you were a merciful God!” Forgiveness hardly seems a good gameplan. “That ought to teach them a lesson” is easier – and more likely – our response, right? Think about it. Refusing to forgive rarely causes the guilty party to change for the better. He or she may well die clueless about the need to be forgiven. If that happens, was forgiving that person a mistake … a waste of time and energy? Not at all. Whoever puts down the burden of unforgiveness ultimately benefits from that decision.

         Was Jesus in today’s teaching being hopelessly idealistic and completely out of touch with reality? Not at all. Forgiveness always rewards the one who forgives more than the person being forgiven because it sets down a heavy burden. The issue is no longer taking up real estate in our head. And if you really think about it, our natural instinct is to spend very little time with ... or very little energy on people who constantly nurse grudges. I think we instinctively do that to avoid being sucked into the negative energy that they apparently enjoy and constantly exude. Eva Kors, a Holocaust survivor, said that she eventually forgave the Nazis not because they deserved it but because she did. In the long run, forgiveness is more practical, forgiveness is more realistic – and forgiveness is more difficult – than any other option. We can forgive and still take steps to ensure our safety by learning from the lesson of the situation.

         “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do ...” Every Eucharist connects us to Jesus, who affirms that forgiveness is a sign of strength and not of weakness. Think about it. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do …” The grace of this Eucharist and every Eucharist should enable us to live out that teaching. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do …”