Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Holiness is About All of Our Relationships

What do “holiness” and “love of enemies” have in common? How should we respond to injury within the community? How do you imagine yourself being holy? Knowing that your body is a temple of the Lord, and therefore holy, what might you change in your behavior? If we all “loved our neighbors as ourselves” do you think there would be wars, trafficking of human persons, pornography, prisons, hunger, executions and poverty?

Wow! These readings are filled with images that are “different” from what we probably expect. Are you, like me, thinking “Do you really mean that, Jesus?” It’s just too hard to do this “love your enemies” thing!

Jesus spent his entire life on earth trying to teach us what it means to do the will of the Father, to be perfect as his heavenly Father and to trust that we have been given all that it takes to “love our neighbors as ourselves.” Jesus asked his disciples, and us, to think differently, live differently, love differently and talk differently. If we claim to be disciples of Jesus, then we too must “be holy.” Holiness is about all of our relationships, not just our relationship with God. It includes our relationships with others, even our enemies. It includes our relationships—our action and in-action—regarding so many of the things we pray for daily. We are called to ACT. And it also includes our relationship to ourselves, to our bodies which are temples of God and therefore holy.

Turn our hearts around, we pray. Help us to see, understand, love and act differently! Help us to be holy!