Message of Abbot Paul - Tuesday 27th June 2023
Abbot Paul • June 27, 2023
We continue reading the Sermon on the Mount, making our way slowly through chapter 7 towards the end. We appear to be in a section made up of many of the sayings of Jesus, that are not necessarily connected one to the other, not that this matters, as the thoughts and words of Jesus have been preserved.
Here is our reading, (Mt 7: 6, 12-15)
“Jesus said to his disciples: ‘Do not give dogs what is holy; and do not throw your pearls in front of pigs, or they may trample them and then turn on you and tear you to pieces.
‘So always treat others as you would like them to treat you; that is the meaning of the Law and the Prophets.
‘Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.’”
What would you have others do to you? Let’s think about it and try to be honest. If we are honest, we must admit that we want others to do a lot for us. We want to be respected, to be treated with dignity, to be treated fairly, and so on. But on an even deeper level, we want to be loved, understood, known and cared for. Deep down, we should all try to recognize the natural longing that God gave us to share in a loving relationship with others, and to be loved by God. This desire goes to the heart of what it means to be human. As humans we are made for that love. Jesus teaches us that we must be ready and willing to offer to others that which we desire to receive. If we can recognize within us the natural desire for love, we should also strive to foster a desire to love. We should foster a desire to love to the same extent that we seek it for ourselves. This is harder than it sounds. Our selfish tendency is to demand and expect love and mercy from others, while at the same time we hold ourselves to a much lower standard regarding how much we should offer. The key is to place our attention on our duty first. We must strive to see what we are called to do and how we are called to love. As we see this as our first duty and as we strive to live it, we will discover that we find much greater satisfaction in giving than in seeking to receive. We will find that “doing unto others,” regardless of what they do to us, is where we actually find fulfilment. Let us then reflect, today, on the natural desire we have in our hearts for the love and respect of others. Then, we can make this the focus of how we treat those around us.
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