7th SUNDAY in ORDINARY TIME

Gospel Bullet Points (Luke 6:27-38)

• How do we deal with our enemies? Our natural reaction is to take revenge on an enemy easily. When someone acts in hate toward you and mistreats you, the last thing you want to do is love them, bless them and pray for them. 
• Our natural reaction is to easily take revenge on an enemy. What he challenges us is to do the unnatural—“Do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile…” What an impractical recipe! How could any self-respecting person follow such impish advice?
• But if we want to be his disciples, then we have to die to our natural feelings and take on the magnanimous and forgiving heart of Jesus. He forgave his enemies on the cross.
• We are in no position to casually judge others because we can be guilty of sin, too—none of us is sinless. None of us was conceived sinless like Mother Mary.
• Criticizing is easy, but it seldom yields any positive results. It would be better if we fill ourselves with some amount of gratitude towards life, and compassion for others.
• Our need to judge others may come out of our own insecurity.  It is a form of defense mechanism.  We judge someone else, maybe for just a minute, we want to avoid recognizing our own hidden
• Always give people the benefit of the doubt instead of harshly and hastily judging them. You do not know what problems other people might have.