Wednesday - November 03, 2021
'We truly love God and keep His commandments if we restrain ourselves from our pleasures. For he who still abandons himself to unlawful desires certainly does not love God, since he contradicts Him in his own intentions. . . Therefore, he loves God truly, whose mind is not conquered by consent to evil delight. For the more one takes pleasure in lower things, the more he is separated from heavenly love.'
-- Pope St. Gregory the Great
TODAY'S READINGS
Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary
Time
Lectionary: 487
Reading 1
Brothers and sisters:
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another;
for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.
The commandments, You shall not commit adultery;
you shall not kill;
you shall not steal;
you shall not covet,
and whatever other commandment there may be,
are summed up in this saying, namely,
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Love does no evil to the neighbor;
hence, love is the fulfillment of the law.
Responsorial Psalm
R. ( 5a) Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Blessed the man who fears the LORD,
who greatly delights in his commands.
His posterity shall be mighty upon the earth;
the upright generation shall be blessed.
R. Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
He dawns through the darkness, a light for the upright;
he is gracious and merciful and just.
Well for the man who is gracious and lends,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
R. Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Lavishly he gives to the poor;
his generosity shall endure forever;
his horn shall be exalted in glory.
R. Blessed the man who is gracious and lends to those in need.
Alleluia
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If you are insulted for the name of Christ, blessed are you,
for the Spirit of God rests upon you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”
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HATE FOR THE SAKE OF LOVE
When Jesus says in our Gospel reading today that we are not his disciples unless we "hate" others and hate even our own lives, he's not talking about being unloving to anyone nor being unkind to ourselves.
Following Christ means being so loving that we hate it when someone or something interferes with that love. It means hating sin and worldliness so much that we're willing to carry the painful crosses of love, making sacrifices to repay evil with goodness and to convert our difficulties into triumphs of holiness.
Jesus warns that if we start on a journey of holiness without agreeing to go all the way, if we're not willing to carry the cross farther than we'd like to endure, if we're not interested in going the extra mile, if we're not willing to die to our own agendas and self-centered desires, and if we let family members or other people influence us into dumping the hardships and seeking only what is fun and easy, we're like the builder who didn't have the resources to finish the project. We haven't learned enough from the life and death of Jesus.
The first reading today affirms this "hate for the sake of love" spirituality. Saint Paul wrote, "The one who loves others has fulfilled the law." And yet it takes great effort and emotional healthiness and spiritual maturity to hate our selfishness and our own desires enough to handle every situation with love.
It's especially challenging when our needs are not getting met. If we love others more than they love us, or if we give to others more than we receive from them, we easily revert to self-protective selfishness. The less self-esteem we have and the less spiritual maturity we have the more this is so.
It's necessary to remember that God does not ask us to love others unconditionally and unselfishly without giving us the ability to do it. Even (or especially!) in the most difficult of times, he gives us whatever we need that will enable us to obey his laws.
When it seems impossible to be Christ-like in our dealings with others, it's only because we have not let the Spirit of Christ completely fill us. God's grace is always available. Consider how Mary, our Blessed Mother, was able to resist all temptations; it was only possible because she was full of grace, which was a gift from God to enable her to accomplish his will.
In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, when we recognize and repent of our selfishness, this same grace is bestowed upon us abundantly. The grace to love, the grace to be kind when we feel like being mean or cranky, the grace to hate our own unChristian behaviors and to do what Jesus would do, is a gift of empowerment. It makes us able to be the holy persons that we were baptized to be.
Today's Prayer
Forgive me, Lord, for the times that my actions were not motivated by genuine love. Help me to be faithful in every circumstance. Amen.
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