6th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Our readings for the 6th Sunday in Ordinary Time are:

1. Sirach 15: 15-20
2. Psalm 119: 1-2, 4-5, 17-18, 33-34
3. 1 Corinthians 2: 6-10
4. Matthew 5:17-37

• You don't understand
• How often have you heard a teenager lament "you don't understand" to an authority of some sort as a defense for their actions?  What does "you don't understand" really mean most often?
• Have you ever longed for someone else to really understand you?
• What did you do to help impart that understanding to them?
• How did it make your life better once there was someone else who really "gets you"?
• To what extent do you think that God "gets you"?
• Why?

• Give me a discerning heart
• How would you define discernment?
• When would you see using that gift?
• Do you think that there is a community use of discernment as well as a personal one?
• What are you doing to become more discerning?

• Maturing is hard to do
• Thinking back on earlier times in your life, have you ever wondered whether maturity is really worth it?
• What would you say is the most painful thing about maturing?
• Do you think that we can accelerate that maturing process?
• What are the benefits of genuine maturity?
• Are they worth it?

• Ignorance is not bliss
• If someone injures you, and you never make that known to them, are you being the bigger person, or are you denying them the chance to make things right between the two of you?
• Is it better to forgive them and never let them know that they have injured you, or let them know, risking that they may never ask forgiveness?
• If you decide to not tell the person who injured you, but you do

Preparation for Reconciliation:

1. What am I doing to understand God's motives?
2. How intentional am I about my discernment?
3. Where do I want my maturing to take me?
4. What do I need to truly forgive?

The Lord loves a cheerful forgiver

To a truly bitter person, injury is sometimes the only thing they have.
Friendships have dried up through the years.
Abandonment scars their hearts.
Forgiveness seems foolish.

Real forgiveness starts with introspection.
Looking for my contribution to the whole mess.
Seeking out where I thought, acted, spoke to make it worse.
Sometimes the way to forgiveness begins with "I'm so very sorry."

It's a rare day indeed when a really first rate mess
Is a solo expedition.
Usually it requires careful cooperation between a large cast
All working together to cause true tragedy.

The conceit that you were the only innocent party
In the midst of that emotional battlefield
Should seem unlikely at best in the cold light of day.
Causing you to see opportunity in the cold gritty dust.

Maturity is at least partially about taking responsibility
For what is mine, and forgiving the rest.
Not laying everything on me, because that's easier
Than holding someone else accountable for what's theirs.

If I bear the burden, that makes me a martyr.
And everyone knows that martyrs are saints.
Or maybe you prefer to blame it all on someone else.
And cast yourself in the role of detective.

The only way to true healing is humility.
Tearing away the veil of conceit from life.
Being willing to bear the pain of confession,
And the uncertainty of forgiveness.

Humility needs to embrace trust
Before it can really shine forth
Two sides of a single coin are they
Each supporting the other.

I say pray for both at once,
And while you're at it add courage to your shopping list.
Because both humility and trust
Ask for courage pretty routinely.

No one said this life was easy.
Just that it was joyous.
Now it's up to you to find
What joy can really mean.

Shalom!