BE MERCIFUL, JUST AS YOUR FATHER IS MERCIFUL

1 Cor 8,lb-7.11-13; Ps 138; Lk 6,27-38
13 SEPTEMBER
To love man according to justice, truth, mercy and charity, first of all we must love God. God is loved by doing his will. The will of God is only one: that one believes in Christ and welcomes him as the true spring and source of eternal life, truth and justice given by God to every man. We do not accept Christ the Lord, we cannot love man according to truth. We are lacking the soul of love that is Christ Jesus. As a body without a soul can only be embalmed or led to putrefaction in a sepulchre, so a man devoid of his supernatural, divine soul that is only Jesus Lord, is a body that walks in history, but incapable of any true love.

That Christ Jesus is the only heart of the Father is attested to by the Christian that believes in him. His works of universal love reveal the truth of Christ, not through words, but through his life. The life of the Christian that believes is the true revelation of Lord Jesus. Christ reveals the Father loving as the heart of the Father and thus his disciple.

The next day, the crowd that remained across the sea saw that there had been only one boat there, and that Jesus had not gone along with his disciples in the boat, but only his disciples had left. Other boats came from Tiberias near the place where they had eaten the bread when the Lord gave thanks. When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?” Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.” So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent” (Jn 6, 22-29).

The more one has faith in God, who has given us Christ as our source of justice and charity and the more we can love man according to the purest will of the Father. What does Jesus ask of us? That we love man with the heart of the Father. Who does give us the heart of the Father? Christ Jesus. The Father gives us Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus gives us the Father. If we reject Christ Jesus, we are without the Father. We might never love with his heart. What the Apostle John reveals is true: “He who does not love the man that sees cannot love God that does not see”. But this phrase only means that no one might say he loves God he does not see, if he fails to love the neighbour he sees. But it is very true that no one might love with the heart of the Father, if he denies Christ Jesus as the one and only giver to the men of the Father’s heart. The Father only on Christ has placed his seal. He consecrated and sent only him as the Giver to the men of his heart and of his life. This is universal, immortal and eternal truth. Christ is the only heart of the Father.

“But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit (is) that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as (also) your Father is merciful. “Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, make us true believers in Christ Jesus. Give us his heart.