7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 20 February

7th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 20 February

A reflection on today's readings by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:

"Why turn the other cheek? Because hate multiples like a seed. If one preaches hate and violence to ten men in a row, and tells the first man to strike the second, and the second to strike the third, the hatred will envelop all ten. The only way to stop this hate is for one man (say the fifth in line), to turn his other cheek. Then the hatred ends. It is never passed on. Absorb violence for the sake of the Saviour, Who will absorb sin and die for it. The Christian law is that the innocent shall suffer for the guilty.

"Thus [Christ] would have us do away with adversaries, because when no resistance is offered, the adversary is conquered by a superior moral power; such love prevents the infection of the wound of hate. To endure for a year the bore who afflicts you for a week; to write a letter of kindness to the man who calls you dirty names; to offer gifts to the man who would steal from you; never to answer back with hatred the man who lies and says you are disloyal to your country or tells the worse lie, that you are against freedom - these are the hard things which Christ came to teach, and they no more suited His time than they do ours. They suit only the heroes, the great men, the saints, the holy men and women who will be the salt of the earth, the leaven in the mass, the elite among the mob, the kind who will transform the world. If certain people are not lovable, one puts love into them and they will become lovable. Why is anyone lovable - if it be not that God put His love into each of us?

"Judging our fellow men is something as perplexing as the judgment of colours on a spinning top. When a man is at rest, or in a fixed work, such as playing a game or working at a lathe, we think we can very well judge his character. But when we see him in the whirl and motion of everyday life, with its incessant change of pace, its rapid flash from one occupation or duty to another, all this goodness and badness blur into indistinctness. There is so much goodness at one moment, badness at another, sin in one instance, virtue in another, sobriety at one post, excess in another, that it is well to leave the judgment to God and to give the most charitable interpretation one can. Our Blessed Lord gave us one standard by which others may be judged; it was not a positive, but a negative one: 'Judge not, and you shall not be judged. For as you have judged, so you will be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.'"

(Through the Year with Fulton Sheen)

Prayer for True Repentance & Pardon

Behold me at Thy feet, O Jesus of Nazareth, behold the most wretched of creatures, who comes into Thy presence humbled and penitent! Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to Thy great mercy! I have sinned and my sins are always before Thee. Yet my soul belongs to Thee, for Thou hast created it, and redeemed it with Thy Precious Blood. O grant that Thy redeeming work be not in vain! Have pity on me; give me tears of true repentance; pardon me for I am Thy child; pardon me as Thou didst pardon the penitent thief; look upon me from Thy throne in heaven and give me Thy blessing. Amen. 🙏💖