Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A, 19th February 2023

The Lord is Compassion and Love

We live in times when many of our conversations exaggerate difference and division. But the scripture for this Sunday proclaims a radical message of love that overcomes hatred, and a compassion that heals and unifies.

Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (Second Reading) teaches that the Spirit of God is within us. Together, we are a temple of God proclaiming God’s wisdom. This wisdom challenges human notions of tribalism that can ultimately lead to division and hatred, when we see ‘others’ as our enemies.

Moses (First Reading) is commanded to profess God’s wisdom by telling the people that holiness is based on love and forgiveness:
‘You must love your neighbour as yourself.’

In the Gospel, Jesus reveals the full expression of the wisdom of God’s Law of Love: ‘love your enemies’. We are called to respond with radical non-violence to all forms of hatred and division.

The Psalm that sits at the centre of this week’s scripture is a beautiful song of gratitude to a God full of forgiveness, who is slow to anger and abounding in compassion and love.

This week, may the words of this song of love sing out through all that we do and say. Let us pray that we will have the grace to move beyond divisive ‘them-and-us’ ways of thinking and relating. In God we are all One, bound together with compassion and love.