10th Saturday in Ordinary Time
2 Corinthians 5:14-21; Matthew 5:33-37
“Brothers and sisters: The love of Christ impels us” (2 Cor. 5:14). The driving force behind all our actions is the love of Christ. The Father so loved the world that He sent His beloved Son. The Son so loved us that He laid down his life for us. The love we have received as a gift. Since we have received it as a gift we are to give it freely as a gift. The apostle Paul makes this comment: “What do you have that God hasn’t given you? And if everything you have is from God, why boast as though it were not a gift?” (1 Cor. 4:7). We have no reason to be proud. Everything we have, everything we are, all that we do, that is good is a gift from God. Neither have we reason to be stingy. Nothing we have is our own. Should we lose anything in the process, the loss is not ours to suffer but God’s. Should there be any gain, the benefit is to the glory of God. “His master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming, I should have received what was my own with interest” (Mat. 25: 26-27).
In order to gain the crown of life, one must be willing to risk the loss of all. Totally consumed by love and charity, the believer can endure the worst of hardships and suffer the pains of persecution. By so doing, they follow the example and fulfill the will of Christ who poured himself out for love of them. Though they be ejected by the world as vile and worthless, yet they will be held as precious by God. The Lord who raised Christ from death will reach down his own hand and will raise them up to sit beside him on his heavenly throne. Saint Paul attests to this: “God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8). When the Beloved Son died, he brought about a great change. Through his resurrection, he made all things new, allowing mortal men to partake of his immortality.
God so loved the world that the Beloved Son who did not know sin took to himself the nature of fallen mankind so that we who were lost in sin could come to know the righteousness of God. Christ alone is the sacrifice for our sins. He alone heals our infirmities and makes us whole. God who is rich in mercy fills us with newness of life and joy. It is God who breathes His Spirit into us and renews the image of his son in us. Just imagine a mosaic of stained class exquisitely crafted with every hue and shade of all imaginable color. Each piece a different size and shape perfectly fitted to the next. A transparent work of art attracting and transforming light into streams of radiance piercing all life. Imagine each one of us – women, children, men, rich and poor, abled and disabled, honorable and dishonorable, sick or healthy. All of us are part of this incredible work of art, this mosaic of “The Kingdom.”
O Jesus, give us thy heart, as a pledge of thy love, and as a place of refuge, that we may find therein a secure-repose during life, and a sweet comfort at the hour of death. Hide me in thy sacred heart, until the storm of life is past.
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