7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C (February 23, 2025)
Luke 6:27-38
“For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured back to you.” (Luke 6:38)
When God created the world, it was his will that all share in his essence. God did not want to create something unlike himself but something where who he truly is, his essence, would fill all creation. Who God is, his essence, is love. Every person, everything, every molecule has come forth from and is imbued with that essence, which is Love, with a capital ‘L.’ This is because it is a person, not an idea or a feeling, or something abstract. Our common ground as creatures is that we come forth from the person of God and have a share in him. And to share who God is, is to love.
We bear this essence of God in our earthly flesh, the flesh we inherited from Adam. In the second Adam, Jesus, we see what it means to be an image of him, the life-giving Son of God. The first reading from the first book of Samuel paints a picture of the earthly spirit, vengeful and unforgiving and a picture of David who spared his enemy’s life because he recognized the Presence of God in his enemy.
What would happen if we listened to today’s Gospel from the lips of Jesus upon the cross. It’s from the cross that we can most clearly see and share in the essence of God. To hear Jesus’ words from his pulpit upon the cross is a way to grasp, even a little, the measure of the love that He invites us to be. His love is measureless, and he asks us to throw away our measuring sticks of how much or how little love we give to others. Like Jesus, we are asked to give to one another the measureless love of forgiveness, of generosity because that person in need is God’s created love made flesh in a sister or brother. To love an enemy by doing good to them from a heart that has learned poverty of spirit, the inner freedom to cling to love and not our darker urges for revenge or hatred, to be free of animosity. In other words, to throw away our measuring sticks and make charity the root and foundation our lives.
Whatever we put out on others will come back to us. We can count on it. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give, and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in turn be measured out to you.” It doesn’t have to be bad things measured to us. We can have overflowing gifts poured into our laps. May you have all the good gifts of God that you can possibly carry!