Reflection by Rev. Leonard N. Peterson
Expansion, like many words and ideas, can have multiple and quite disparate meanings. Often this is the source of good humor. When we think of the expansion long ago by then President Thomas Jefferson in making the Louisiana Purchase, he doubled the size of our country with the stroke of a pen. So wide was the territory that Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to explore and map it.
Contrast that noble historic event with the notion of an expanded waistline that afflicts most of us after 40, and we have a happening in our personal history that demands will power, or is some cases, injections of expensive drugs to combat.
But today I wish to reflect on an expansion Our good Lord made of the concept of charity. To the question: “Who is to be the object of love of neighbor?” The answer comes in the Gospel for this last Sunday of February. Who did Jesus say we have to love? In a word, everybody!
Wow! Of course, we believers have heard it before. But it can be just as disconcerting to our per-conceived plan of behavior and just as annoying as it was for Christ’s first hearers. With Lent being just 10 days away, I would think this is a priority task for most of us in any effort at penance and self-reform.
You may think that the need for such is foreign to the life of a priest. Let me assure you that it is not. Responding positively to Our Lord’s expanded idea of love expressed in Luke chapter 6 is just as hard for us as for anyone. Personally speaking, many years ago a priest much younger than I spoke negatively about me to our authorities with no justification. It shocked me at the time because I thought I had bent over backwards to be kind to this man. To this day he has no idea of the hurt and disappointment he caused. I must see him at most diocesan events and never let on. I must refrain from even a hint whenever I’m in the company of those who know him. The devil on my shoulder has urged me to reveal, but this gospel passage stops me. Like David with Saul, I must forgive and respect the teachings of my king and yours, Jesus our Lord.
Somehow over the years that have followed, regarding this incident and others (for priests can be cruel to one another via their tongues) I have come to realize that Our Lord is so right. Absorbing pain when the gospel truth demands it is one sure way of making small amends for the pain of our Savior on His cross. And it helps us all to think big for a change. I found this line from an anonymous source: “Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.”
God love you and give you His peace.
Rev. Peterson’s Reading & Gospel Summary
Reading I: 1 Samuel 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
Refusing to harm his jealous enemy Saul, David slips into Saul’s own tent and retrieves his weaponry but does the man no harm. So deep is David’s respect for the office of king.
Reading II: 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49
Paul draws the contrast between Adam and Christ, preaching that by nature we all receive a physical body from Adam, but by grace we receive a spiritual body from Christ. This spiritual body is destined to live forever.
The Gospel: Luke 6: 27-28
Continuing the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus widens the scope of charity and commands a radical love that reaches out to everyone even our enemies.