Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
February 23, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Matthew 5:38-48<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the heart of Jesus\u2019 teaching in the Mount is the formation of the\nheart. However, the heart in the Bible is not limited to our affective side or\nemotions. It also stands for the center of intellectual capacity and freedom.\nThe heart is the seat of life itself, and thus, represents who the man or woman\nis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Last week, Jesus told us to purify our hearts from evil thoughts and\nwicked desires [Mat 5:17-37]. It is not enough not to do violence to others,\nbut it is necessary to cleanse our hearts from anger and vengeance. It is not\nsufficient not to commit adultery, but we are required to remove from our\nhearts the lustful desires. Forming the hearts is more fundamental rather than\nsimply and blindly following the written laws and regulations. The formation of\nthe heart is about building up good habits, and virtuous character. A virtuous\nperson is avoiding evil, not because of fear of the external laws, but strong\nmotivation from within.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, in today\u2019s Gospel, Jesus demands even something higher. The\npurifying of the heart is just the first step, and we need to go to another and\nmore difficult step: to love. It is precisely tougher because love is not merely\nabout removing impure desires in our hearts or preventing us from doing evil,\nbut it is about actively doing good. Moreover, this love [agape] is only real\nand meaningful if we are doing good, not in the conditions that are favorable\nto us, but rather in the face of evil and sufferings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since its foundation around two millennia ago, Christians remain the most persecuted people. Opendoorusa.org reported that numbers of persecutions and violence against Christians are on the rise. In 2019, more than 260 million Christians [one out of nine Christians in the world] are living in the places where they experience a high level of persecution. Almost 3 thousand Christians were killed because of their faith. More than 9 thousand churches and Christian buildings like schools were attacked. In Nigeria, priests and seminarians were abducted and tortured. Some were lucky to return alive, but many were found lifeless. In China, the government made national crackdown against Christians and shut down the churches. In Indonesia, things are better for Christians because our rights are enshrined in the constitutions. Yet, in the grassroots, we continue to feel discriminated against and fear of being targeted by the extremists and terrorists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our destiny as Christians is not better than our brothers and sisters who belonged to the early Church. However, as our brothers and sisters in the past, our mission remains the same: to love our enemies, to respond evil with utter generosity, and be ready to fight for justice with gentleness. Christians are accused of weak people, but this is plain wrong. The world that is built by violence and bitterness is self-destructing, and unless we dare to be true followers of Christ, we cannot stop the downward mobility towards total ruin. We thank our predecessors who refused to be controlled by violent anger despite so much evil they had to endure. The world is a much better place with whose hearts are pure. St. Tertullian believed that the blood of martyrs is the seed of Christianity, and we believe also that the love of Christians is the seed of a better world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Valentinus Bayuhadi Ruseno, OP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time [A]
\nFebruary 23, 2020
\nMatthew 5:38-48<\/p>\n
At the heart of Jesus\u2019 teaching in the Mount is the formation of the heart. However, the heart in the Bible is not limited to our affective side or emotions. It also stands for the center of intellectual capacity and freedom. The heart is the seat of life itself, and thus, represents who the man or woman is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[57,58],"class_list":["post-9216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-renungan","tag-english","tag-sunday-reflection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9217,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216\/revisions\/9217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lubukhati.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}