COMMENT ON THE LITURGY OF THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY
Collect
O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake our Lord. Amen.
Readings
Rom 8:12-23; Lk 6:36-42
Comment
Jesus commands us to be merciful like the Father (Lk 6:36) and to forgive our neighbor because we were the first to be forgiven by him. None of us can think that we did not need and continually need God's forgiveness.
As St. Paul affirms in the letter to the Romans, quoting the Psalms (Ps 14:3 and 53:1-3): "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Rom 3:10). For this reason, in the prayer that Jesus taught us we ask the Father to forgive our trespasses forgive those who trespass against us.
The commandment of mercy is scandalous because it is easier for us to think of a strictly retributive justice of God, which punishes sinners and rewards the just. It is easier to believe that we have deserved a reward from God than to think of the gratuitousness of salvation. A gratuitousness that, far from instigating us to irresponsibility, urges us to be grateful and therefore to righteousness as a response to the good that God first showed us and as an imitation of his actions in the world.
It was precisely in preaching God's mercy that Jesus encountered the most significant controversies and hostilities. Also, his preaching did not stop at words, but took concrete form in gestures that determined a break with the legalistic practices of the time: he heals on Saturdays, touches lepers moved by compassion, and eats with prostitutes and public sinners.
We are all wounded by sin, and even our eye is wounded by sin. this is why we often do not know how to see things as God sees them. To the extent that we will be able to understand how much we are first in need of the Father's forgiveness, we will be able to give forgiveness and mercy to our neighbor and show compassion towards the whole creation, who groans awaiting the manifestation of the children of God (Rom 8:19).
Perfection is not just something from which we have fallen and which we remember with nostalgia, but a goal towards which the conscience tends as in a prophetic vision, animated by hope and guided by the Spirit.
The Gospel message gives us the good news that the Lord makes all things new, restoring his image in us and calling us to heal the wounds of every man.
Christ asks us to work actively to restore peace and reconciliation to the world, between man and God, between man and man, and between man and the whole created reality.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
