[00:00:05] Hello! My name is Sally Moriarty-Flask; welcome to From His Word to Our Hearts, my weekly Bible Study podcast. Together we will explore the readings to be proclaimed at the Catholic Mass on Sunday, February 23, 2025, the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time.
[00:00:26] This week's episode is entitled: Living the Golden Rule, and in these readings, we’ll learn that there are objectively moral and ethical ways to behave, certainly, but there's more to it than that. So, how do we live the Golden Rule in today's intensely complex and individualistic society?
[00:00:50] As we journey through the readings this week, consider the following: Every person has their own unique life experiences that have shaped their hopes and dreams, their fears and anxieties, their expectations and their reactions. Rather than assuming we know what someone else wants based on our own personal experiences, maybe we should take the time to ask them how they want to be treated. And after all, isn't that really how we'd like to be treated?
[00:01:28] Lets begin.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:01:34] Heavenly Father, we praise you and we thank you for the gift of every unique and precious person in the world. Help us to know, love, and respect everyone we encounter as deeply and personally as you know, love, and respect them. We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[00:02:01] Now that we've opened our hearts in prayer, let's listen to what God is telling us in the Scriptures. Our Gospel this week is from Luke 6: 27-38.
[00:02:13] “[Jesus said to his disciples:] ‘I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again. And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them. [For] if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But [rather] love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you; [a] good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’”
[00:04:24] So, this is part two of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain and it follows immediately after last week's passage. In this section, Jesus continues teaching his followers the meaning of discipleship, focusing particularly on love and mercy. Remember, last week, Jesus turned the concepts of happiness upside down. Now, he presents his audience with a series of imperatives that confound them even further. And if we're being honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we still struggle to live these commands 2,000 years later.
[00:05:11] So let's break open this section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain.
[00:05:18] “[Jesus said to his disciples:] ‘I say to you that hear,’”
The word disciple means one who follows, so Jesus is not speaking just to the Twelve here, but to everyone in that great crowd - on the plain - that has gathered around him. What did they hear? What should we hear?
[00:05:44] “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”
These aren't suggestions! Jesus isn't saying: well, maybe you should think about doing these things. No, these are unconditional demands. He's telling his followers - not just the crowd around him, remember, but us as well - this is how you are to act. These aren't suggestions.
[00:06:20] These are imperatives. These are commands.
“To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also;”
Meaning, don't retaliate, certainly, but that's just the starting point… that's just the beginning. Jesus is telling us that we have to offer anyone who has offended us another chance… hopefully, not to offend again, but give them a chance to do better… to be better.
[00:06:53] “and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as well.”
That translation in the RSV, I think, confuses things a bit for us. We tend to think as both a cloak and a coat, as outer garments. That's not what Jesus meant by cloak. He does actually mean an outer garment, but by coat he means an inner garment or a tunic. The NAB (New American Bible) actually translates that as tunic… DO NOT WITHHOLD EVEN YOUR TUNIC. So, if someone asks you for your outer garment, sure, go ahead and give it to them, and give them your inner tunic as well. In other words, give as much as you can.
“Give to everyone who begs from you; and of him who takes away your goods do not ask them again.”
Evil begets evil, right? That's such a common truism that it's impossible to find one particular individual to whom that quote can be attributed. But what Jesus is saying is, don't allow that. Don't return evil for evil. Instead, you can overcome evil with good… be selfless, be generous, be magnanimous… don't be conquered by evil, but let good conquer over everything.
[00:08:26] When someone comes to beg from you, give them what they ask. That's tougher in our modern times because we see so many people standing on street corners. Do we just give them money, or do we have that fear in the back of our mind of… oh, if we give them cash, they're just going to go blow it on drugs or liquor or whatever? Well, there's a way around that. You can give people gift certificates to a restaurant or even to a grocery store. AND HIM WHO TAKES AWAY YOUR GOODS, DO NOT ASK THEM AGAIN… you know what? Give… give… out of our surplus, right?
[00:09:09] Give to your local food pantry. Give to your parish's special collections. Give to as many things as you can, and don't ask people to give you things in return. That's what Jesus is really saying.
[00:09:28] He goes on…
“And as you wish that men would do to you, do so to them.”
[00:09:34] That is what we call the Golden Rule. And it is just as simple and as complex as it sounds. What if we stopped assuming we know how others want to be treated and asked them instead? Keep that in mind when we get to our First Reading, we'll circle back.
[00:09:59] Jesus then goes on to present a series of “what if” statements…
[00:10:04] “[I]f you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.”
Jesus is telling us here, don't be so quick to pat ourselves on the back! We can't think we're doing what he wants us to do, if we measure our behavior by human standards alone. No, no, no! He expects more from us! He created us for more… and he expects more out of us. So, don't just love those who love us - love those who hate us. Don't just do good to those who do good to us - do good to those who are cruel to us.
[00:11:08] Don't just lend if we expect to be repaid - lend to anyone who needs it. But he doesn't stop there. He actually expresses more, right? What else is it that he expects us to do?
“[L]ove your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.”
[00:11:29] Reciprocal behavior is NOT necessary, right? We should give without counting the cost, give without expecting anything in return. That's what we're created for and Jesus expects nothing less.
[00:11:50] And when we live up to Jesus' expectations? He tells us…
“[Y]our reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish.”
Okay, now I'm going to ask you to be honest with yourselves. Don't say anything out loud, not even if you're listening just in your head. How many of us, when we heard the words UNGRATEFUL and SELFISH, immediately pictured someone… someone else… someone other than the person who looks back at us from the mirror. Maybe we shouldn't. Maybe we should examine our own behavior first before we attempt to criticize others. I'm just as guilty as everyone, believe me.
[00:12:40] Jesus goes on….
“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
[00:12:47] Oooh, that's a tall order, isn't it? But being merciful is how we imitate God! And that, too, invites us to look in the mirror.
[00:12:59] Then Jesus gives us a game plan, a playbook - if you will - containing four steps that will help us do just that: to be merciful as our Father is merciful.
[00:13:14] “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you;”
[00:13:30] Those four simple steps are Jesus’ expectations for us. Okay, they're not really simple, right? They're actually quite difficult… but they are, nevertheless, what Jesus expects us to do! But then he qualifies it, right?
“[a] good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Now think about that. Think of measuring out anything. I don't care if it's rice, I don't care if it's flour, I don't care if it's gold ingots. Think about measuring something out. If we want to be stingy, we put the least possible amount we can in any particular measuring device, right? But if we want to be generous, we shake it, we pack it down, right? If we really want to be generous, we mound it. We maybe even have some drape over the top, some fall off, on the extra, we put so much in that measuring device. So what Jesus is saying here is, if we're stingy with all of those four things… with our judgments, with our condemnations, or with our forgiveness, and our giving, right? Those are actually two sides of the coin. But if we're stingy with things, we'll get a meager reward in return.
[00:15:03] But if we're kind, compassionate, and generous, we will receive kindness, compassion, and generosity in return. We will be given back in the same quantity in which we gave. The measure that we give will be given back to us.
[00:15:27] What does Jesus want us to take away from all of this? What lesson does he want us to learn? He wants us to know that God is the one who will ultimately settle all accounts. It's not our responsibility to exact vengeance in this world. And let's face it, that path is never a good one. Never! When we hold a grudge, when we seek revenge, when we try to punish other people… that just allows resentment to build up in our hearts and that damages us in the long run, right? A quote often attributed to Saint Augustine says: Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. That's not helpful. That's not going to make us better people, and it's not going to affect the other person. It just hurts us.
[00:16:29] And it's certainly not ever going to make the world a better place. It's not going to help us understand others, and it's not going to help others understand us.
[00:16:40] Jesus gave us objectively moral and ethical standards of behavior. Love others, do good, pray for and bless those who are unkind to us. Give people plenty of second chances, third chances, fourth chances, however many chances they need, be selfless and generous.
[00:17:04] But he didn't stop there.
[00:17:07] He also told us to treat others as we would like to be treated. But if there's even the slightest hint of uncertainty about what that might entail, shouldn't we ask? And isn't that really what we would want?
[00:17:24] That takes us to our First Reading, which is from 1 Samuel 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23.
[00:17:35] “[In those days,] Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. So David and Abi’shai went to the army by night; and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the army lay around him. Then said Abi’shai to David, ‘God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now therefore let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.’ But David said to Abi’shai, ‘Do not destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against the LORD's anointed and be guiltless?’ So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they went away. No man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side, and stood afar off on the top of the mountain, with a great space between them; and David [said], ‘Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and fetch it. The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness; for the LORD gave you into my hand today, and I would not put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed.’”
[00:19:06] I want to start by giving a bit of background on this passage. This book was written by Samuel, who was a prophet and the last of the Judges. I mentioned the Judges a little bit ago. The Judges were not Judges in a court of law, not that kind of Judge. The Judges were warrior heroes and often prophets that ruled over the Chosen People in the Promised Land after the Exodus. And their reigns, the amount of time that they ruled, was variable. Some ruled only a few years, some ruled decades. But they were the ones responsible for leading the people after they entered the Promised Land. The time of the Judges was a turbulent one in Jewish history, and it was marked by repeated cycles of sin, repentance, and deliverance. When Samuel became a Judge, the people came to him and demanded that they be ruled by a king like all the other nations that were around them. And despite Samuel's warnings to the people that this wouldn't end well, God nevertheless instructed Samuel to anoint Saul as king. So, Saul became the first king of Israel in 1030 B.C.
[00:20:27] Saul was not a model king by any stretch of the imagination. He was impatient, he openly disobeyed God and then lied about it, among other things… those are the top ones. So, God withdrew his favor from Saul and sent Samuel to anoint David as the next king. And we hear that story in 1 Samuel 16.
[00:20:57] Despite being tapped as the next king, David had unfailing respect for Saul. Saul was still the king of the land at that point.
[00:21:09] Saul, on the other hand, was livid and got himself into one crazy situation after another, chasing after David and trying to kill him. Time and again, Saul ended up at David's mercy… and time and again, David refused to harm Saul. Today's story is an example of one of those chases. Okay…
“[In those days,] Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, with three thousand chosen men of Israel, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph.”
Chapter 23, just three chapters before this, tells the story of the Zipites running to Saul and tattling to him that David is hiding in their territory, which is about 22 miles southwest of Jerusalem, or would have been at the time.
[00:22:05] “So David and Abi’shai went to the army by night;”
Abishai is David's nephew, the son of his sister, Zeruiah.
“and there lay Saul sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground in his head; and Abner and the army lay around him.”
Abner is Saul's cousin and commander of his army.
[00:22:31] So picture that scene.
“Then Abishai said to David, ‘God has given your enemy into your hand this day; now therefore let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear, and I will not strike him twice.’”
Meaning, in that, that Abishai is so angry he won't need to strike Saul twice. Abishai is really tired of running with David away from Saul time after time.
“But David said to Abi’shai, ‘Do not destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against the LORD's anointed and be guiltless?’”
[00:23:09] Remember, Saul is still the king and David will not do him any harm nor allow any harm to be done to him by others.
[00:23:21] “So David took the spear and the water jar from Saul's head; and they went away.”
[00:23:26] Saul's spear and water jar are David's trophies, proof that Saul was - again - at David's mercy and that - again - David spared him.
“No man saw it, or knew it, nor did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the LORD had fallen upon them.”
That seems awfully convenient for David, but that was both an opportunity and a test.
[00:23:56] God cast a deep sleep on Saul and his army, precisely - yes - so that they would be at David's mercy - that was the opportunity. The test, however, was to see - yet again - how David would act, would he again spare Saul?
[00:24:18] And the 1 Samuel tells us time and again that David made the right choice. While of course, time and again Saul made the wrong choice. The story continues…
“Then David went over to the other side, and stood afar off on the top of the mountain, with a great space between them;”
So Ziph, the wilderness of Ziph, stands on one sort of hilltop. David went across a valley to a neighboring hilltop. That's what the text is telling us.
“And David [said], ‘Here is the spear, O king! Let one of the young men come over and fetch it.”
David shouts across the valley, saying to Saul, here is proof that yet again you were at my mercy and I did not raise my hand against you. I will gladly give these things back to you. Just send somebody over to get them. David goes on…
“The LORD rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness:”
We should hear an echo of the Gospel in these words, right? THE MEASURE YOU GIVE WILL BE THE MEASURE YOU GET BACK… if we are righteous and faithful, then righteousness and faithfulness will be our reward. David then ends with a plea…
“for the LORD gave you into my hand today, and I would not put forth my hand against the LORD's anointed.”
Okay, sounds more like a statement, but really it is a plea. In other words, David is saying, please stop chasing me! You've seen the evidence of this time and time again. I don't come after you, why are you coming after me? Please stop chasing me. And this is also David's way of saying that he, David, will let God settle all accounts with Saul. You can see why this reading was paired with the Gospel, right?
Now, we need to look at Saul's motivations here as the other side of the coin - the potential dark side, if you will - of the Golden Rule and why it can sometimes - erroneously - be used to justify bad behavior. Saul repeatedly attacked David because it's what Saul would have done if their positions were reversed. Meaning not that Saul necessarily wanted to be treated that way, but rather that he simply couldn't imagine any other course of action. He simply couldn't imagine anyone doing things differently. Saul couldn't understand David's point of view, and thereby he attributed his own motivations to David, time and again. And that got him into trouble over and over again. So that brings me back to where we started. If we use our own life experiences, our own fears and uncertainties, our own dreams and desires, to predict how we should treat someone else, we can easily end up making the wrong choice.
[00:27:22] So aren't we really better off just simply communicating? Wouldn't we have a better outcome if we asked someone how they wanted us to treat them, rather than assuming we already know? And wouldn't we want others to do the same for us?
[00:27:41] Our Responsorial Psalm this week is Psalm 103, and the refrain is:
The Lord is kind and merciful.”
And here are the verses...
“Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. [He] forgives all your iniquity, heals all your diseases. [He] redeems your life from the Pit, crowns you with mercy and compassion. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear him.”
[00:28:34] This Psalm is a Hymn of Praise and it begins and ends with exactly the same words: BLESS THE LORD, O MY SOUL… if you read the whole thing. Now, God is well aware of our human frailties. He created us, he knows our shortcomings and our imperfections. This Psalm presents an entire litany of reasons why God is to be praised… and they are all ways in which he responds to our human failings: forgiveness, healing, mercy, compassion, redemption. All things that we are in desperate need of and which God, in his immeasurable love, is always willing to shower upon us.
[00:29:26] In verse 10, the Psalmist says: HE DOES NOT DEAL WITH US ACCORDING TO OUR SINS, NOR REPAY US ACCORDING TO OUR INIQUITIES. When we hear that, that should remind us of the words from the Gospel: HE IS KIND TO THE UNGRATEFUL AND THE SELFISH and this Psalm reminds us - in no uncertain terms - that we need to look in the mirror when we say that… HE DOES NOT DEAL WITH US ACCORDING TO OUR SINS, NOR REPAY US ACCORDING TO OUR INIQUITIES.
[00:29:57] That leads us to our Second Reading, which is from the First Letter of Saint Paul to the Corinthians 15: 45-45.
“[Brothers and Sisters:] Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living soul’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
[00:30:52] This would have been the 6th of our 7 passages from 1 Corinthians. As I've said a number of times, we missed one of those passages because of the Feast of the Presentation at the beginning of February.
[00:31:04] And if you listen regularly to this podcast, but you are not a member of my home parish, you will hear the final passage from 1 Corinthians in next week's regular episode, which will cover the readings for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. However, if you do attend my home parish, you will miss that final passage from Corinthians. So, let me explain why. Next weekend is the final Sunday before we enter into the Season of Lent. In my home parish, instead of observing the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, we will instead celebrate the Solemnity of the Anniversary of the Dedication of our parish. And yes, that's a mouthful! And we do that because we wish to celebrate that anniversary with great joy, with grand music, and able to sing alleluias. And because we want to do all that, we have permanently transferred that Solemnity to the final Sunday before Ash Wednesday. For those of you that aren't members of our parish, let me just explain. We originally dedicated our current church on March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation, which is usually either in Lent or Easter, and so we couldn't celebrate the Dedication during those seasons. We celebrate it before they begin. So, I will release a special bonus episode next week that will cover the readings for the Anniversary of the Dedication in addition to my regular weekly episode for the Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. You are, of course, welcome to listen to either one or both, whichever you prefer.
[00:32:48] So back to this week's Second Reading, now. As you recall, 1 Corinthians was written to address a number of concerns that had arisen in the community of Corinth after Paul's departure. The section that we've been hearing from for the past couple of weeks addressed the growing fear among some that there is no resurrection. Paul has spent a great deal of time and effort, in this letter, responding to that fear because he knew it was unfounded. Paul knew the truth of Jesus' Resurrection because he, himself, experienced the Risen Christ. In today's passage, Paul explains that our physical nature comes to us through Adam, the first man, but that our spiritual nature comes through Jesus, the man from heaven. And when we are resurrected (lowercase “r” resurrection) if you remember back to last week. We will forever bear the likeness of Christ whose Resurrection (uppercase “R” Resurrection, capital “R” Resurrection)… Christ's Resurrection is the promise, and the guarantee, of our own future resurrection. So, let's listen to what Paul has to say…
“[Brothers and Sisters:] Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being;’”
The first man created in the Garden of Eden, Adam, was formed from the dust of the earth and is mortal and subject to decay.
“the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.”
The last Adam is, of course, Jesus whose spiritual existence in heaven preceded his earthly existence. Jesus is immortal and incorruptible.
[00:34:37] “But it is not the spiritual which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.”
Paul doesn't mean that Adam didn't have a soul… that we don't have souls. What Paul means, here, is our earthly existence. Humanity's physical existence came first. Man was created from the dust of the earth and then quickly fell into sin. Christ came from heaven to redeem fallen mankind according to God's plan. Hence the physical comes first (our creation came first), and the spiritual (Jesus’ redemption) follows.
[00:35:29] “As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust;”
[00:35:35] Okay, so if we are not baptized, or if we are baptized and don't live our baptismal promises, Paul says we will remain mired in our own sin and selfishness… we will be OF THE DUST.
[00:35:54] “and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven.”
What we take away from that is that if we are baptized - or as Jesus said in John 3, if we are born again of water in the Spirit - then we will be like Jesus and be OF HEAVEN. Even if we do not always live our Baptismal promises perfectly, we are, nevertheless, marked as belonging to God. The difference here is we can turn our backs on that blessing, right? We can turn away from our faith, we can turn away from our Baptism, we can turn away from living as good people, as morally and ethically good as Jesus has taught us to do, and we can mire ourselves in sin, then we will be of the dust. But if we don't turn our backs on our Baptism, if we do our best, even if we fail, but if we do our best to live our Baptismal promises, if we repent when we do not do our best, if we really try to make progress and live the way Jesus expects us to live, then we are marked as belonging to God. Well, we're always - if we're baptized - we're always marked as belonging to God. But we can be more like Jesus if we live the way he taught us to live.
[00:37:19] “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.”
What Paul means here is that in the same way that we bear the mark of Adam in our humanity (our moral corruptible bodies), we shall also bear the mark of Christ in our resurrection (our eternal and incorruptible new existence). What our resurrected bodies will look like, we don't know, right? That's a mystery. Many saints and theologians have speculated about that over the centuries. But we don't know. We know that they will be raised, right? And we profess that every day we pray the Creed: we believe in the resurrection of the body. We believe that we will be raised. We believe that we will be transformed to be more like Christ's glorified body.
[00:38:17] We will still, however, be ourselves. We will be our own individual persons… just infinitely better. And we won't have to think about living the Golden Rule in heaven. Our actions, our behaviors, will also be infinitely better because everything will be done in accordance with God's perfect love. But that doesn't let us off the hook now.
[00:38:50] Now we need to live according to Christ's teachings. We need to act morally and ethically, we need to be just and merciful, we need to be kind and caring, we have to live the Golden Rule by treating others the way we would like to be treated. And if there's ever the slightest hint that we may not know what that means, if we're ever uncertain about how we should treat someone else, then we should ask them. Because after all, that's probably how we - ourselves - would like to be treated.
[00:39:31] If you would like to reach out to me with questions or comments, send me an email at
[email protected]
Thank you for listening and until next we meet, may God shower his blessings upon you like a soft and gentle rain and may he hold you, safe and secure, in the palm of his hand.
[00:39:49] From His Word to Our Hearts is produced by SFS Audio Solutions.
The content of the show was assembled by me, Sally Moriarty-Flask.
Our music was composed by Jimmy Flask and is used with permission of the composer. All rights reserved.
Information regarding references used in preparing the exegesis for this podcast is available upon request.
Thank you for listening and God Bless.
