7th Sunday Ordinary Time C – “Be Compassionate as your Father is compassionate.”

We truly are called to welcome and assist all to the compassionate love of Jesus through the Eucharist. Christ truly needs all of us. He wants us to be holy so that we can help Him through our community of Holy Spirit to share God’s compassionate love.

Next week we will hear from our beloved Bishop Felipe for the annual Bishop’s Stewardship Appeal. It’s the invitation to the faithful to make an additional gift. And your gift to Bishop’s Annual Stewardship Appeal supports Seminarians Education, Catholic Charities, Catholic Schools and Religious Education programs, efforts in Catholic Evangelization and Housing support for our retired priests.

We at Holy Spirit are sincerely grateful for all of your gifts that you give to Jesus, to the poor in our ministries, and to one another in the love that Jesus teaches us. Thank you! Let us continue to be great stewards of God’s love.

Today’s gospel offers us the great challenge for a disciple of Jesus:

“Love your enemies, do good to those who dislike you, bless those who speak ill of you and pray for those who mistreat you.” “Be merciful just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

We all know how difficult this is to do. I mean each one may question; Can I do this? No human being can do it. But we are not just human beings. By God’s Holy Spirit we are children of God, a new creation. We are divine human beings. By the power of the Spirit living in us there is no injury which we cannot and should not forgive. We can stretch out our hands in friendship to everyone.

The real question is: have I received the Holy Spirit? Have you?

St. Francis de Sales recommends several practices that can help us remember the strength of divine life within us. Begin the day with a short prayer of awareness: “My God, you are here loving me today; help me to remember you’re with me as we go through the day.” Then, talk with God about the grace I will need to deal with particular people in my life who can irritate me or have mistreated me. During the day, when I know I’m going to meet such a person, I ask God’s help that I may relate with that person in a way that is pleasing to God. Then, each evening, thank God for the times when grace gave me strength and ask pardon for the times I forgot to ask for God’s help and failed because I tried to do it on my own.

The key is learning the discipline of remembering that I share divine life.