7th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Dear Parishioners, 

What usually happens when someone tries to take the law into his or her own hands? Well, usually, a less-thandesirable, maybe even a terrible or tragic outcome all around and for all involved. The Gospel for this weekend, from the mouth of Jesus Himself, tells us to let the civil law authorities handle civil law issues between citizens, but more importantly, to let God handle the interpersonal issues between people. Jesus is always calling us to integrity, and not to ignorance. Integrity and ignorance both start with the same letter and have the same number of letters yet mean the opposite of each other. Integrity can do so much good, while ignorance can do so much harm. Another way of defining these terms is that Christian integrity is surrendering to God to avenge, punish or intervene, and ignorance is taking revenge, punishment and intervention into one’s own hands and control, with the latter being almost always harmful and dangerous. So if anyone professes to be a Christian, a follower of Jesus, then what Jesus has to say in the Gospel this weekend is the guide for how we are to live and view our lives in Christ. It is certainly a challenge – it is easy to be ignorant, but integrity takes some work and commitment – work and commitment that we are capable of if we believe that Jesus has the words of everlasting life and that His words, directions, and instructions are truly what we need to live by if we are going to live up to our baptismal call to discipleship and to be people full of the integrity that can only come from Jesus.