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Untiring opposition to false standards and ceaseless activity against wrongdoing are demanded by love. Humanity can never be lifted to the highest levels if its
teachers dwell in the lowlands. To be in the world and yet not of it is the difficult requirement of love.
- Kirby Page (1890-1957), Jesus or Christianity (What kind of wrongdoing do you feel moved to oppose these
days?) |
2 Cor 6:1-10; Ps 98:1, 2b, 3ab, 3cd-4
Mt 5:38-42 Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to
you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one to him as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand him your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go with him for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not
turn your back on one who wants to borrow."
Praying the Daily Gospels: A Guide to Meditation, by Philip St. Romain, 2018 (3rd ed.) Matthew 5: 38-42 (Nonviolent resistance)
Today’s reading addresses the issue of breaking the cycle of violence. Because violence begets violence, Jesus commands his followers to refuse to perpetuate this cycle. Nonviolent resistance, he believes, is the best way to convert the violent of this world. • "An eye for an eye
is making the world blind,” Gandhi said. Do you agree? Do you believe Jesus commanded us to refuse to stand up to evil? How should a Christian respond to evil?
Treatise on the Love of God, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) ____________ BOOK III: OF THE PROGRESS AND PERFECTION OF LOVE Chapter 14: That the holy Light of Glory will serve for the union of the blessed spirits with God
In like manner, therefore, as God has given us the light of reason, by which we may know Him as Author of nature, and the light of faith by which we consider Him as source of grace, so will He bestow upon us the light of glory by which we shall contemplate Him as the fountain of beatitude and eternal life: but a fountain, Theotimus, which we shall not contemplate afar off as we do now by faith, but which we shall see by the light of
glory while plunged and swallowed up in it.
Divers, who, fishing for precious stones, go down into the water, take oil, says Pliny, in their mouths, that by scattering it, they may have more light to see in the waters where they swim. Theotimus, a blessed soul having entered and plunged into the ocean of the divine
essence, God will pour into its understanding the sacred light of glory, which will enlighten it in this abyss of inaccessible light, that so by the light of glory we may see the light of the Divinity. For with Thee is the fountain of life; and in Thy light we shall see light. |
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