Monday, July 1, 2025

 

Monday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time

(Genesis 18:16-23; Matthew 8:18-22)

A very successful pastor was awarded a ranking position in the diocesan chancery.  When he saw his mother he shared the good news.  His mother, however, looked worried.  When he asked her why the long face, she said, “If you don’t visit the sick and bury the dead visit the sick and bury the dead, how will you get to heaven?”

Often our mothers teach us more about Christian ethics than classes in the finest universities.  They are usually the ones who instill upon us the Lord’s love and mercy.  This is the message conveyed so dramatically in today’s first reading.  Abraham may believe that he is giving God a lesson in mercy when he banters with God about saving the infamous cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  But God is eternally kind and infinitely merciful.

We must never forget this message, even when we see bad things happening to good people.  We should remember that no one is entirely just.  We all sin against the Lord who created us.  Yet God sent His Son to die in a way more terrible than any evil people experience so that our sins may be forgiven.