Tuesday 26 June
Matthew 7:6, 12-14
A child misheard what he had heard that day in class. He said to his mother, ‘Mum, Miss Smith said that Jesus taught that we should do one to others before they do one to us.’ Oh, out of the mouths of babes! So often life involves making sure we do one to others before they do one to us. Getting on the front foot, defending ourselves and attacking others is the order of the day in many walks of life. Jesus summed up centuries of tradition when he taught: ‘So whatever you wish that men would do to you, do so to them; for this is the law and the prophets’ (v. 12).
How hard is this to do? Is this a big ask? You would have thought not, but the reality is it is often a lot more challenging than we think. To live like this is really to live the life in the Spirit, and the life in the Spirit is the ‘narrow door’ through which we enter the kingdom of God.
St John of the Cross famously taught that at the eve of our lives we will be judged on our love. We all want (and need) to be loved. Love is about being treated with respect, kindness, dignity, affection, patience and so on. We respond well when we are related to in this way. We respond badly when we are treated badly. When people are unkind to us, we are unkind back. When people treat us with a lack of respect, we return in kind. When we are subject to undignified treatment, we respond accordingly. It is not that difficult to figure this out – this is human nature and the way of the world. To break this chain takes courage for sure.
It also requires a revelation. We don’t love because we don’t ask for the grace of revelation. Revelation to understand: who is my neighbour? C.S. Lewis explains: ‘Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour, he is holy in almost the same way, for him also Christ vere latitat – the glorified, glory himself, is truly hidden.’
Lord, please help me to do unto my neighbour as I would want them to do unto me: to love with the charity and kindness and mercy of Christ.
2 Kings 19:9-11, 14-21, 31-36 • Psalm 47(48):2-4, 10-11
Matthew 7:6, 12-14
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