Friday February 23, 2024

See the Calendar of Reflections (NEW!)

“To ignore the need to heal from our anger is to stifle the Holy Spirit within us.”

Good News Reflection for:

Friday of the 1st. Week of Lent
Memorial of Saint Polycarp, bishop and martyr
February 23, 2024

Today’s Prayer:

Lord: Forgive me for those moments in which I replied with resentment to the evil I received. Give me the grace to leave the justice to You and to try to always forgive and to pray restlessly for those who are most difficult to love. Amen.

Subscribe to Today’s Saint Quote & Prayer:
gnm.org/SaintQuotes/

Today’s Readings:

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Ps 130:1-8
Matthew 5:20-26
bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/022324.cfm
USCCB Podcast of the Readings:
bible.usccb.org/podcasts/audio/daily-mass-reading-podcast-february-23-2024

How strongly do you want to grow in the Spirit?

Is anything stifling your faith growth? Or the use of God’s gifts? Or your unconditional love for others?

The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5, 6, and 7) is a seminar on how to reach our full potential. Near the beginning of the program, which is our Gospel reading for today, Jesus gives an example of how to turn a literal interpretation of the law into a faith that’s fully alive.

The message is this: A fully alive Christian takes the harder but more loving approach. Mediocre people take the lazy, comfortable route and don’t accomplish anything of lasting value.

Jesus makes this point by addressing the sin of anger. He describes the increasingly destructive effect it has on the angry person’s soul. At first, anger in the heart results in “judgment,” represented by the Jewish local court where the easiest of punishments were meted out.

Then, Jesus names one of the initial ways that anger kills: To shout “raqa” at someone is to call them a nitwit or imbecile. It destroys their self-esteem. It belittles them. The abuser — yes, name-calling is abuse — must now face a trial before the Sanhedrin, the highest judicial body.

Next, Jesus warns that calling someone a fool is even worse. No longer an “imbecile,” the person under attack is “worthless” (the direct meaning of the Greek word). The listeners understood that this word was filled with contempt. To hate someone so much as to see no value in them (for example, seeing unwanted pregnancies as burdens to get rid of rather than as precious humans) is to condemn oneself to Gehenna. Gehenna was a name given to a nearby valley where followers of a pagan cult killed children by fire. Jews used the name to illustrate the concept of punishment by fire; today we call it “hell.”

The rest of this scripture passage is God’s remedy for anger. In essence, Jesus says: Go and do whatever is necessary to be reconciled with the one who’s made you angry. This, he points out, is even more important than worshiping God. How genuine can our worship be if anger has replaced love in our hearts, since God is love?

We all have people in our lives whose behavior angers us. Righteous anger includes forgiveness; sinful anger wants vengeance. If we’re walking down the aisle in Mass to receive Communion while refusing to love anyone, how can we love the Christ who’s in the Eucharist, who has united himself to the community (that’s what “communion” means) including that person who makes you feel angry? How can we receive love while our hearts are closed to love?

To ignore the need to heal from our anger is to stifle the Holy Spirit within us. We grow in the Spirit and in holiness when we accept the difficult challenge of humbling ourselves so that we can give love to those who don’t deserve it.

To reflect more on this subject, use our poem: “For you, I Carry the Cross” @ https://wordbytes.org/lent/for-you-I-carry-the-cross/.

© 2024 by Terry A. Modica

 To distribute the Good News Reflections in your church bulletin or in RCIA or faith sharing groups, please order a license @ Catholic Digital Resources.

 You can also receive this & more faith-builders by text message on your phone.

 Keep it going! This reflection reached you thanks to benefactors. Please support this ministry today.

 Post your prayer request.

 How else can we serve you today? Visit our homepage.

Search more reflections in our continually growing database.

Homebound, Prison & Hospital Ministers are invited to print and distribute them without further permission.

Continue your prayer time with these:
Pray with Saints | Pray the Rosary | Other Prayers | Random Quotes.

Order and share Terry Modica's books

Socialize with us at:
        

Please share this with others by inviting them to visit this page. You may also print this for your personal use and you may share the print-out with others.