WORD 2day: Monday, 11th week in Ordinary time
June 16, 2025 - 2 Corinthians 6: 1-10; Matthew 5: 38-42
pc: universalis.com
The Word today seems to answer the question: how do we prove that we are "God's people"? We claim that identity, and don't we have the onus of living up to it? At times we can gather ourselves us up to say, "yes we do have the responsibility," but only until we hear the teaching of the type we listen to today! Or at least that is what the world at large does... because, the teaching we hear in today's Word, is so unreal and quixotic to say the least, in the eyes of the world.
Being flogged, sent to prison, mobbed, going sleepless, starving... when such situations are affronted with fortitude we prove to be God's people! Our purity, our knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness, truth and righteousness even in the face of disgrace, blame, persecution and suffering, go to prove that we are truly God's people. This is what Paul explains, much in elaboration of what Jesus taught when he said: offer no resistance, show the other cheek, go an extra mile, give even to those who want to take away what is yours!
Yes, being God's people is being so unrealistc, so impractical... so Christ-like, so God-like. We know what it means - God loved us and continues to love us when we least deserve even the tiniest fraction of the limitless love that God offers us; Christ was willing to die for us, even when we were sinners! We people of this God; we are disciples of this Christ - and what else could be expected of us?