Saturday of the First Week of Lent

Quotes:

“Committed. How much I like that word! We children of God freely put ourselves under an obligation to live a life of dedication to God, striving that He may have complete and absolute sovereignty over our lives”¹

“The Mosaic law does not speak about physically hurting your enemy but about hating your enemy. But if you merely hate him, you have hurt yourself more in the spirit than you have hurt him in the flesh. Perhaps you don’t harm him at all by hating him. But you surely tear yourself apart. If then you are benevolent to an enemy, you have rather spared yourself than him. And if you do him a kindness, you benefit yourself more than him.”²

“For neither did Christ simply command to love but to pray. Do you see how many steps he has ascended and how he has set us on the very summit of virtue? Mark it, numbering from the beginning. A first step is not to begin with injustice. A second, after one has begun, is not to vindicate oneself by retaliating in kind. A third, to refuse to respond in kind to the one who is injuring us but to remain tranquil. A fourth, even to offer up one’s self to suffer wrongfully. A fifth, to give up even more than the wrongdoer wishes to take. A sixth, to refuse to hate one who has wronged us. A seventh, even to love such a one. An eighth, even to do good to that one. A ninth, to entreat God himself on our enemy’s behalf. Do you perceive how elevated is a Christian disposition? Hence its reward is also glorious.”³

“The law used to demand that your neighbor be loved and allowed hatred against an enemy. Faith, rather, requires that enemies be cherished. It breaks the tendency we have to be peevish and urges us to bear life’s difficulties calmly. Faith not only deters anger from turning into revenge but even softens it into love for the injurer.”⁴

1. St. Josemaría Escrivá , The Forge, 855. Gavigan, J., McCarthy, B., & McGovern, T. (Eds.). (1999). The Pentateuch (pp. 763–764). Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers.
2. Anonymous, INCOMPLETE WORK ON MATTHEW, HOMILY 13.38. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 120). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
3. Chrysostom, THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, HOMILY 18.4.43. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 120). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.
4. Hilary, ON MATTHEW 4.27. Simonetti, M. (Ed.). (2001). Matthew 1–13 (p. 122). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.”