Monday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
(II
Corinthians 6:1-10; Matthew 5:38-42)
Many parents
today cannot accept the choices of their children. They can only shake their heads and maybe pray
for a child who is cohabiting with a girlfriend. They may especially regret that a child uses
drugs or has chosen to have an abortion.
They resemble St. Paul in today’s first reading.
Paul has a
father’s love for the Corinthian Christian community. He preached the faith to them. Then he watched the members grow in love for over
a year. The reports that he hears of
factions and misbehavior distresses him.
In the reading he pleads that they become reconciled. He is not above prodding them with guilt as
he mentions the hardships he has endured to preach the gospel.
Our faith
as well has not come cheaply. Some of us
were fortunate to have had a Catholic education paid for by others. Perhaps our parents scrimped on vacations to pay
our tuition. In the heyday of Catholic
schools, religious sisters lived on a pittance to keep tuition affordable. We should not abandon the truths that we
learned by conforming to the wickedness of our time.
