Do No Harm

02-24-2019Weekly Reflection

We listen quite a while before we get to the “punch line” of the first reading today: even though it would be an easy thing to do, David will not harm the anointed one of the Lord. We, of course, know that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, but the Bible uses this term for many different people. It is scripture’s way of indicating who has been chosen by God for a special place and mission in salvation history.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus presents a greatly enlarged list of those who, as children of God, we should not harm, but love instead: our enemies, those who curse us or do us harm, those who owe us money, the ungrateful, the wicked. The point of Jesus’ teaching is not to encourage these kinds of behaviors in others, but rather to form us in the image of our heavenly Father by increasing our opportunities to love unconditionally, expecting no return; to be merciful and forgiving, even when it would be easier not to.