Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time Year 2

Title

Loving Your Enemies

Outline

I hear a lot even in religious circles about hatred of enemies

On the political and religious left it is radical conservatives

On the political and religious right it is leftists (with no distinction made for religious versus secular folk - the religious are read out of Christianity and demonized along with the secular folk). And when asked about Jesus, the response is often, “We gotta be tough.”

Catholics are not considered Christian, I might add, even if they are anti-abortion. Furthermore, too much of their social teaching is too “leftist.”

But while this strong polemic tempts some Catholics it does not square with our readings, nor with Church teaching.

David had no reason to love Saul

He had a warm relationship with Saul’s son and had once been one of the family, but Saul had repeatedly tried to kill him, driving him and his family from their homeland.

But when he hears that Saul and Jonathan had died in battle he mourns, not because of the loss of Israelite sovereignty and not because of hatred of the Philistines, not even just because Jonathan was dead, but because Saul was dead. “Alas! the glory of Israel, slain upon your heights! How can the warriors have fallen!” He loved Saul in death as he had refused to kill him in life, despite knowing that God had anointed him.

Now look at Jesus

He has worked miracles and crowds have gathered to hear his teaching. Some are thinking of him as Messiah, others as a prophet - that was risky and required careful distancing by him. The Jewish leaders were at the least suspicious of him. Yet Jesus treats them with respect. And how his “adelphoi,” what we think of as his cousins who had grown up with him as siblings have come saying, “He is out of his mind.” They want to take him into protective custody, their version of a padded room. Perhaps as the relatives of the man with the demonic legion had tried to do with him.

Jesus refuses to return hostility. While he distances from the crowds at times to prevent their crowning him, he keeps up a traveling ministry in Galilee. They would be the ones welcoming him at the Triumphal Entry, and Jesus would allow it, knowing that his apprehension, trial, and condemnation would take place while the Galileans were making their way to Jerusalem.

When it comes to the Jewish leaders, while Jesus warns them at times and warns his followers about them (yet still tells them to obey the leaders), he is still willing to eat in their houses, dialogue with them, and otherwise treat them with respect.

In the next chapter we have the relatives who come bringing Mary. Jesus does not go out to them giving them the chance to grab him, but instead says, “Whoever does the will of God is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Mary, of course, did do the will of God, so is recognized, but then others will have to become disciples to be recognized as family.

In other words, Jesus loved his enemies, each in their own way, from the Pharisees who together with the high priestly clans would ultimately arrest him, to the misguided Messianic enthusiasts, who were right and wrong at the same time, to his own relatives. In each case he, like David, would avoid their grasp - until his hour came - and in each case he pointed to how if they followed him they could come to blessedness. That is just what Mary had done. And what Jesus will eventually lead some of his “adelphoi” to do, making them apostles.

Ultimately he weeps over Jerusalem rather than rejoicing at his coming vindication.

The message to us is clear:

“Go thou and do likewise.” We are not destined to rule this world, much less use the methods of this world to do so, but to rule the renewed world after the final judgment. We are not called to gain our own justice or vindication, but to live so that our vindication is God’s declaration when we appear before him.

If we get this - and I preach to myself as well as you - we will have peace in the midst of turmoil and rejection and our hearts will be broken out of love for those rejecting us, not out of how we have missed God’s calling of us to love.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 1-20-2024: Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

2 Samuel 1:1–4, 11–12, 19, 23–27

1 After the death of Saul, David returned from his victory over the Amalekites and stayed in Ziklag two days. 2 On the third day a man came from the field of battle, one of Saul’s people, with his garments torn and his head covered with dirt. Going to David, he fell to the ground in homage. 3 David asked him, “Where have you come from?” He replied, “From the Israelite camp: I have escaped.” 4 “What happened?” David said. “Tell me.” He answered that the soldiers had fled the battle and many of them had fallen and were dead; and that Saul and his son Jonathan were dead.

11 David seized his garments and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him. 12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

19 Alas! the glory of Israel,

slain upon your heights!

How can the warriors have fallen!

23 Saul and Jonathan, beloved and dear,

separated neither in life nor death,

swifter than eagles, stronger than lions!

24 Women of Israel, weep over Saul,

who clothed you in scarlet and in finery,

covered your clothing with ornaments of gold.

25 How can the warriors have fallen

in the thick of battle!

Jonathan—slain upon your heights!

26 I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother!

Most dear have you been to me;

More wondrous your love to me

than the love of women.

27 How can the warriors have fallen,

the weapons of war have perished!

Catholic Daily Readings 1-20-2024: Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 80:4b

4 O God, restore us;

light up your face and we shall be saved.

PSALM

Psalm 80:2–3, 5–7

2 O Shepherd of Israel, lend an ear,

you who guide Joseph like a flock!

Seated upon the cherubim, shine forth

3 upon Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.

Stir up your power, and come to save us.

5 LORD of hosts,

how long will you smolder in anger

while your people pray?

6 You have fed them the bread of tears,

made them drink tears in great measure.

7 You have left us to be fought over by our neighbors;

our enemies deride us.

Catholic Daily Readings 1-20-2024: Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

Acts 16:14b

14 One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying.

GOSPEL

Mark 3:20–21

20 He came home. Again [the] crowd gathered, making it impossible for them even to eat. 21 When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 1-20-2024: Saturday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

SATURDAY, JANUARY 20, 2024 | ORDINARY TIME

SATURDAY OF THE SECOND WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR 2 | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

On the same date: Saint Fabian, Pope and Martyr; Saint Sebastian, Martyr

First Reading 2 Samuel 1:1–4, 11–12, 19, 23–27

Response Psalm 80:4b

Psalm Psalm 80:2–3, 5–7

Gospel Acclamation Acts 16:14b

Gospel Mark 3:20–21

GREEN or White for BVM