February 20, 2022
VII Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
Today's Gospel (Lk 6:27-38) is strictly related to and follows on from last Sunday's, during which we heard the account of the beatitudes in their Lucan version.
While listening to these beatitudes, we began to look at life through the eyes of Jesus himself. And we saw how he sees that, in a mysterious way, the Kingdom of God is present in the poor, the last and the afflicted. In reality, this poverty-stricken way of living is a participation in God's own life and style of relationship.
What does this Kingdom consist of? What is God's way of life? All this is described in what we have just heard today. And we could probably sum it up in the simple experience of being able to love the other more than ourselves.
But how do we achieve this?
Verses 27-30 tell us about concrete episodes of life, that is, ordinary things that mark everyday life. It can happen to us that someone takes away something that is ours, or that we are hurt, or that we are asked to give away something important to us. But then, what should we do?
It seems to me that there are two possibilities.
The first one is to love the other by considering ourselves as the limit of this love. We then love as long as the other takes nothing away from us, nothing that we consider vital for ourselves. And if loving takes something away from us, then we stop loving, because what is ours is more important than the other. However, if we love in this way, then we are not actually loving anyone. We only love ourselves and what we do for ourselves.
But there is another way to love, another measure. It is to love the other more than we can love ourselves. To love them beyond our pain, our need for justice, our right to be compensated, our injuries. Loving like this means putting the other before everything, even when he or she has hurt us.
So I do not accept that what the other may take away from me or ask of me, that the wounds they may inflict on me, can prevent me from remaining in relationship with them. For I cannot live without loving the other, as they are.
In other words, the measure of true love cannot be ourselves.
But then who is that measure? We find the answer in verse 36: "Be merciful, as your Father is merciful".
In the Kingdom of God, which Jesus reveals in the poor and the little ones, there is only one way to love. And it is that of the Father. We are not only all called to love in this way; we can only love in this way, because the Father's love lives in us and remains present through the grace of the Spirit. This is the Kingdom of Heaven.
As long as each of us tries to love with our own strength, then we cannot get out of a self-referential love. We remain in a love of which we are the measure. It may be great and beautiful, but it is incapable of reaching out beyond our own selves.
But what happens when we love as the Father loves?
The last verses of today's Gospel present us with the result of a life lived in this way, the result of what happens to the one who chooses the Father as the measure of their own love.
It is interesting to note that last Sunday, we were introduced to this way of loving by looking at the poor, at those who stand at the end of the line and who struggle to live. Whereas today we conclude this journey with an image that speaks of abundance, of something that overflows and exceeds all expectations and hopes. The person who opens themselves to a measure of love according to the way of the Kingdom finds true richness, a richness that fills life with truth. But for the world, this person appears to be a loser, someone who seems incapable of claiming their own rights, of seeking justice for themselves, as would be normal and legitimate.
In reality, it is a very special and unique measure of life that will be given to this person. And only they who love in this way know it.
Not only do they lose nothing, but by saving their relationship with friends and foes at all costs, they find themselves rich in a possibility of loving that makes life true and already eternal.
+ Pierbattista
