Getting Even
Tuesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Some people in one of the Samaritan towns were not nice to Jesus, they told him he was not welcome. That made his disciples very angry. And they said, “Lord, would you not have us call down fire from heaven to destroy them?” We can guess how that thought appealed to Jesus. He was shocked his disciples would even think of such a thing. And we are told, “He turned toward them only to reprimand them.”
The disciples had been with Jesus long enough to know they were expected to treat all people with love and forgiveness. They were not to harbor thoughts of revenge.
You and I have been Catholic long enough to also know that we are never to try to get even with people for not being nice to us. Certainly, we will be tempted to do so – our feelings will rise up at times and try to move us to get even with people for what they have said about us, for what they have done to us. But we must fight those feelings. We must turn to heaven and ask for help to overcome such thoughts.
Maybe this will help. Think of all the times you hurt other people’s feelings and have gotten away unscratched. Then take whatever unpleasantries people do to you as payment for what you have done to others. If for sure you’ve never done anything to anyone, then do me a favor. Take what people do to you as penance for my sins. I’ve hurt so many people I’ll never be able to make up for it all on my own
