WE ARE SAVED BY THE GOODNESS OF CHRIST!
Thursday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Both our readings try to direct our attention to other people. How we affect others and how we treat others is very important to God. We are not to lead anyone into sin by our words or example; we are to be loving and forgiving towards our enemies as well as towards our friends. Those two things are enough in themselves to keep us busy for the rest of our lives. In the effort we put forth to live as Christ tells us we can discover our real selves and come to realize how much we are in need of the mercy of God.
As soon as we try to say only things that are good and helpful to others we find ourselves saying things we shouldn’t even be thinking. As soon as we try giving only good example, sure enough we do something we are ashamed of. We are quick to shoot off our mouths and guaranteed to act like fools. Later we might worry if we’ve influenced anyone by our stupidity. “May God forgive me!”
When we try to forgive and love our enemies as we forgive and love our friends, we begin to discover that we don’t even forgive and love our friends very well. As soon as we seriously try to live up to any of the commands and advice of Christ we discover how awful we really are. Our defects become obvious to us - and to others.
Let me remind you. The greatest saints looked upon themselves as the greatest sinners. Those who try to live like Christ soon find how unlike him they are. Let’s face it: We are saved by the goodness of Christ, not by our own goodness. But we still must try to do good things. If we don’t try we’ll forget our need for God.
And OH! So how much we need Him!
