Reflection on the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Posted on February 20, 2022, by Maria Visse SL
Today we are a week and a few days away from Ash Wednesday. Lent begins. As I looked back on the Sunday Gospel events it has been a quick history of the public life of Jesus. This might be a good time to look back at the Gospels and begin to prepare for the Lenten season. A special time of reflecting on Jesus’ life and teachings.
Jesus, companion, teacher, provoker, provider. The memories of his teachings have at times been written down like litanies. Short, to-the-point directives that touch on the everyday situations in our everyday lives.
The Gospel today has that same rhythm of a litany. “Jesus said to his disciples, to us, ‘To you who hear I say …” The disciples were there in his presence, eye to eye, and I think he was saying to them, “You can do this.”
And I am thinking that takes a great deal of faith in oneself. Faith to live for a better future. Faith that goes beyond what I have seen of myself, what I know have been the times that I have not been present.
For me, that is the beauty of this Gospel. Jesus gives practical examples of moments I can choose to “do to others as you would have them do to you.”
The last sentence, “For the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you.” That is a call to joyfully enter into any and all relationships that encourage, that stimulate, care for one another. We can do this.