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Jesus tells his hearers what it takes to be a good disciple of his: produce good fruit and build something strong to leave behind yourself.
Since we are all limited in one way or another we must be very sure that we have as great a measure as possible of the appropriate qualities when judging others is required.
To understand what we are as Church, the Creed gives us four adjectives: one, holy, catholic, apostolic.
There are people in the lives of all of us who never seem willing to do us much good. Jesus says that we must do good to them as God does to us.
READ
MT 18:21-35
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive? As many as seven times?”
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UNDERSTAND
by Father Greg Friedman, OFM
In August of 2006, Wendy Avery returned to her Ohio home, feeling as if she was trying to jump back onto a spinning merry-go-round. For an entire year, her world had stopped, but everyone else’s kept spinning. How does one simply hop back on? How does one rejoin the dance when the music has been muted?
We all must examine our consciences. How often would you or I forgive an offense from the same person? “As many as seven times?” as Peter asks.
Those who are poor, who weep, and who are hungry, are seen by God as truly blessed. Not because they are perfect but because they are so often treated with disrespect.
If Mary hadn’t been willing to play her part in the story of salvation things would have been very different. Thanks be to God for her.
Pope Paul VI wrote succinctly: “The Virgin Mary is held up as an example to the faithful for the way in which in her own particular life she fully and responsibly accepted the word of God and did it….She is worthy of imitation because she was the first and most perfect of Christ’s disciples.”
