Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Title

Life-Giving Spirit

Outline

Have you ever noticed how life-denying our culture is?

Certainly that is true in the abortion movement, for while it has coopted feminist agendas of liberation and control of one’s own life, of freedom, that is about an individual woman’s life (whether truly free or coerced) at the cost of denying life to others.

But it is also true about a trend in the gaming culture as parts have moved from killing monsters and aliens, a.k.a. demons, to the realistic killing of humans.

Of course, that was already present in our military, which at least internally exalts weapons systems that have a high kill power, not just of soldiers, but of whole population. As the CCC suggests the just war was left behind at least with WWII and perhaps as far back at the Civil War.

On the smaller scale, at least parts of our culture justify the killing of someone who “trespasses” on one’s property - the so-called “castle doctrine.” It is St Clare armed with an AR-15 rather than the Blessed Sacrament.

Our readings return our poor minds to the teaching of Jesus who gave himself for others so as to be a life-giving spirit, rather than taking the lives of others to preserve his own.

Our first reading has David acting as a type of Jesus

Saul is seeking to kill David, but David and Abishai have been able to enter Saul’s camp and there is Saul asleep with his spear sticking into the ground beside his head

David had every right to kill Saul: (1) Saul was clearly the aggressor, seeking to kill David, having shown his malice on several occasions; (2) the situation was providential, “a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon [Saul’s army], as Abishai points out; and (3) this could be read as “God’s delivering [Saul] into your hand” - God willed.

But David refuses, although taking evidence that he had been there and had spared Saul, his reasoning being that YHWH had anointed Saul and YHWH alone should kill him. That is trust in God, that is a form of forgiveness, and that is risking his life for that of Saul. Instead, he seeks to bring Saul to repentance.

David is living the image of Jesus

Now, he will not always act this way, and never did towards Philistines; he conducts raids of extermination, executes large numbers of enemy captives, and, of course, even kills a loyal top soldier.

But at this period he is not just acting as a living being trying to preserve his life, but as “last Adam a life-giving spirit” who gives life to others, others who do not deserve it.

In other words, he is anticipating what is said of us, “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly [Adam], we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.” The image of the one who gave himself for others.

That brings us to the explicit teaching of Jesus

Jesus taught “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Jesus lived that too. Read that statement and then read the crucifixion narrative. And did not Jesus also “turn the other cheek” and give up both his “cloak” and “tunic” at the cross? Of course, he had been doing good to his opposition by going to their dinners so he could get his message to them and by parables and sometimes clearer denunciations calling them to repentance.

The same, of course, is true of the apostles - after the resurrection - and of saints down the ages.

So, Sisters, this teaching is something to read, mark, and inwardly digest

Our bent nature tells us to preserve our life at all costs, including at that of taking the life of a hostile person.

Our culture tells us that it is justified, that nice people finish last, that it is dog eat dog, and that we can even practice it in a virtual world. It may even criticize those who give their lives or reputations (thinking of Pope Benedict etc) rather than attack back.

Our Church in its wisdom realizes the temptation and so we do not chant the imprecatory portions of Psalms.

We are called to take the teaching of Jesus literally. There are the physical actions he modeled, but, perhaps more importantly, he notes it starts with stopping judging, not because we are blind, but because we have turned all judgment over to God, and it continues with forgiving, which meanings handing over any claims we have against another to God. It finishes with praying for the good of our “enemies” (and I realize that they may be close, as the book The Intimate Enemy pointed out), although we leave God to define what good looks like.

This, Sisters, is one of the hardest teaching of Jesus. It is a process to work it out in our lives. But as we do, we increasingly “bear the image of the heavenly [Adam]” and by becoming one with him also become life-giving spirits.

Readings

Catholic Daily Readings 2-20-2022: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

FIRST READING

1 Samuel 26:2, 7–9, 12–13, 22–23

2 So Saul went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand of the best warriors of Israel, to search for David in the wilderness of Ziph.

7 So David and Abishai reached Saul’s soldiers by night, and there was Saul lying asleep within the camp, his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his troops sleeping around him.

8 Abishai whispered to David: “God has delivered your enemy into your hand today. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not need to strike him twice!” 9 But David said to Abishai, “Do not harm him, for who can lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed and remain innocent?

12 So David took the spear and the water jug from their place at Saul’s head, and they withdrew without anyone seeing or knowing or awakening. All remained asleep, because a deep slumber from the LORD had fallen upon them.

13 Crossing over to an opposite slope, David stood on a distant hilltop. With a great distance between them

22 But David answered: “Here is the king’s spear. Let an attendant come over to get it. 23 The LORD repays everyone’s righteousness and faithfulness. Although the LORD delivered you into my hands today, I could not lay a hand on the LORD’s anointed.

Catholic Daily Readings 2-20-2022: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

RESPONSE

Psalm 103:8a

8 Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger, abounding in mercy.

PSALM

Psalm 103:1–4, 8, 10, 12–13

1 Of David.

Bless the LORD, my soul;

all my being, bless his holy name!

2 Bless the LORD, my soul;

and do not forget all his gifts,

3 Who pardons all your sins,

and heals all your ills,

4 Who redeems your life from the pit,

and crowns you with mercy and compassion,

8 Merciful and gracious is the LORD,

slow to anger, abounding in mercy.

10 He has not dealt with us as our sins merit,

nor requited us as our wrongs deserve.

12 As far as the east is from the west,

so far has he removed our sins from us.

13 As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.

Catholic Daily Readings 2-20-2022: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

SECOND READING

1 Corinthians 15:45–49

45 So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. 46 But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. 48 As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

Catholic Daily Readings 2-20-2022: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION

John 13:34

34 I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.

GOSPEL

Luke 6:27–38

27 “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit [is] that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. 35 But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as [also] your Father is merciful.

37 “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. 38 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 return be measured out to you.”

Notes

Catholic Daily Readings 2-20-2022: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2022 | ORDINARY TIME

SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

YEAR C | ROMAN MISSAL | LECTIONARY

First Reading 1 Samuel 26:2, 7–9, 12–13, 22–23

Response Psalm 103:8a

Psalm Psalm 103:1–4, 8, 10, 12–13

Second Reading 1 Corinthians 15:45–49

Gospel Acclamation John 13:34

Gospel Luke 6:27–38

GREEN