REFLECTIONS TODAY
God is never outdone in generosity. Human conduct is measured mainly by reciprocity of the Golden Rule (“Do unto others what you want others to do unto you”). But God rewards by a hundredfold, here described by Jesus as “good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing”—borrowed from a full measure of grain. To Peter and the other disciples who have left everything to follow him, Jesus replies that they will receive a hundred times as much in this world and everlasting life later (Mk 10:28-31). When we follow the Lord, it is not so much for the sake of “reward” that we will receive, as in a commercial transaction, but because he is the one who fills our hearts. We leave it to the Lord how to recompense us. But we will never be shortchanged. When he asks something of us, it is not for our loss but our gain. Francis Thompson, in the Hound of Heaven, imagines God saying to the human being he pursues, “All which I took from thee, I did’st but take,/ Not for thy harms,/ But just that thou might’st seek it in my arms./ All which thy child’s mistake fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at Home.”
Gospel • Lk 6:36-38
Jesus said to his disciples: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2022,” 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.