Second Week of Saint Luke: 6: 31-36 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. New King James Version: Verses 31: And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. Verse 32: But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. Verse 33: And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. Verse 34: And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. Verse 35: But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Verse 36: Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. In speaking to his followers on the Mountain, our Lord concluded verses 31 to 36 with “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful”. Being merciful means loving those who love us, but also loving and acting in the best interest of those who hate us, our enemies. That is the Love our Saviour wants us to have. Namely, doing good to those who hate us; to wish and pray for forgiveness, good things and blessings from God on those that curse us and wish evil upon us. Even if we are harmed by someone as orthodox Christians , we are not to be entangled in the passion of the moment but yet have the mercy to understand and be compassionate. Our Lord instructs and encourages us, according to our ability, willingness and disposition towards His will, to act on His teachings and example. This according to the Grace He has bestowed upon each of us so that we may receive the great reward of being deemed the children of the Highest. When our Lord Jesus Christ performed His first public miracle of His ministry at the wedding in Cana, There were complaints that the best wine was left for last, missing the point of His mercy and blessings. When our Lord healed the ten leapers, only one of them returned to express thanks and gratitude to our Lord. When our Lord healed and expelled demons out of those who suffered by them, the teachers and priest of the Jews claimed that He received his power to expel demons by the devil himself. Showing evidence of their inability to see that the Christ was before them fulfilling all things as spoken by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit to the Prophets. They could not see the compassionate, merciful and divine power of God. Out of love for the Truth of God, our Lord confronted with words and actions,(as with the whip in the Temple of His Father, showing them their hypocrisy and misuse of the Holy Things of God. Our Lord was accused by the officials of the Jewish hierarchy as blasphemer. Our Lord did not allow the accusations and the slander to stop him from fulfilling His salvific mission and purpose of redemption. So as Orthodox Christians, when we are recipients of unjust and hateful acts towards us, we are to take our Lord’s example and act as He and His Saints have acted, as imitators of Christ, so that in the Forgiveness, Mercy and Compassion of our God, the Holy Trinity, we may convert the ungrateful and evil according to Our God’s Will. Amen.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 13:12:00 +0000
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