REFLECTIONS TODAY
How do we react when offended, taken advantage of, or forced against our will? Mahatma Gandhi, the “apostle of nonviolence,” is one of the most respected leaders of modern history. He admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount inspired him in his nonviolent resistance against injustice and evil. He drew great inspiration from Jesus’ teachings concerning paying evil with good. Gandhi believed that hate begets hate, and love begets love. So attracted was he in this particular section of Matthew’s Gospel that he considered Jesus as one of the greatest among the teachers of humanity, an example of the perfect man.
Jesus is acquainted with the human tendency to strike back at those who hurt us and to harbor enmity toward that person in our heart. Nothing can heal us from this inclination other than an authentic experience of divine love. Jesus points us to the one who gives us the perfect example of kindness to the ungrateful and the wicked—his Father. He invites everyone to “be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36).
SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2021,” ST. PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.