Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Be Holy, Be Whole

“Be holy, for I, the Lord, your God, am holy.” God invites us to God-like. If we embrace our God-likeness, how do we look? How would we act? What would we feel? What would we see? To what would we pay attention?

“The Lord is kind and merciful” gives us hints. The actions of Jesus give us additional instruction. What we need most, in my opinion, is practice! To be a compassionate witness to the Gospel, we look at how Jesus related to persons. Who are the persons named in the Gospels who compelled Jesus to see, to cure and to send? What was it about them that caught the attention of Jesus? When Jesus responds to them or interacts with them, he changes things—rules and practices, lifestyles and relationships! Through our Baptism, we are asked to do the same.

How are we forming our hearts to be compassionate, merciful and forgiving? In Compassionate Integrity Training, compassion is defined as “the wish to alleviate the suffering of another. Compassion consists of noticing suffering, having empathetic concern and feeling a sense of agency. It does not mean simply giving them what they want but recognizing on a deeper level what they need.”

To be holy is to practice compassion, to make whole again. For this, let us all work and pray!