Jesus is the most blessed of those who are blessed since they fulfill what God wants.  And he is the way that leads to God, and to bliss and peace.

There is much we yet have to do to fulfill Christ’s wish that all Christians be one.  And that we let others know by our love that we follow him.  For, no doubt, there is polarization among us Christians, among us Catholics also.  It is sad, besides, that Pope Benedict XVI’s death brings to light that we are a Church that is divided.  For there are those who have turned it into an instrument to pit one Pope against another, those on the right against those on the left.

And Pope Francis, yes, is well aware of the “wars” among us (EG 98-101).  Hence, he asks “Christians in communities throughout the world to offer a radiant and attractive witness of fraternal communion.”  He adds:

It always pains me greatly to discover how some Christian communities, and even consecrated persons, can tolerate different forms of enmity, division, calumny, defamation, vendetta, jealousy and the desire to impose certain ideas at all costs, even to persecutions which appear as veritable witch hunts. Whom are we going to evangelize if this is the way we act?

And, if we fight so against each other, and are not just deep down and with all our heart as Jesus, with whom are we going to share our faith?  The faith that he does fulfill the law and the prophets.  That to go beyond what the scribes and the Pharisees deem right is not to be foolish, but to be wise.  And that it brings us life, not death.

Lord Jesus, make us fulfill the law and the prophets, as you do, and use us as instruments of unity:  let us be peace and meekness in the midst of war and anger; help us to sow respect in place of scorn; keep our hearts clean where greed and lust rule.  And if doing what is right brings us strife (see SV.EN I:75), let it be our way to be one with you to give up the body and to shed blood, so that, for us, to lose will mean to gain and to die, to live.

12 February 2023
6th Sunday in O.T. (A)
Sir 15, 15-20; 1 Cor 2, 6-10; Mt 5, 17-37