My friends, I speak often here about us humans striving to be our best for ourselves and for others during our one, wonderful life, which is such a gift, when looked at as our brother Jesus did.  All our readings for this 7^th Sunday in Ordinary Time speak to this issue “of being our best,” so let’s take a deeper look. 

   With this notion in mind then, David would seem, using a familiar movie line from Raiders of the Lost Ark films,“to have chosen wisely.”  He could have easily slain his opponent Saul but chose the “higher road” and let him live.  It may be good for all of us to consider that the world of nations in which we live often chooses the lowest common denominator that we humans are capable of, war, to solve disagreements. 

   Some of you may be familiar with the group, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service, and its daily, The Nonviolent Life publication of inspirational quotes on peace.  This past Friday’s offering, and I paraphrase George Saunder’s words in part—just because we keep doing something in the same way, doesn’t mean we should stop regretting it…again and again we hear all the “sober, pragmatic arguments that war is sometimes necessary,” [we must realize that] “war is large-scale murder,” us at our worst.” We have evidence of this in the on-going wars in Europe and Africa. It would behoove us all, and especially any in this world in positions of power over others, who also claim to be “Christian” to remember David’s words to Saul’s general in that 1^st reading, that he basically couldn’t harm someone who was “anointed” by God.  And friends, in the greater world picture, we should consider how we all “are anointed” by our God and “precious” in God’s sight.

    If we can have such a mindset as individuals and nations, of the psalmist today in # 103 that, on the one hand, “Humans last no longer than grass,” and on the other that, “God never treats us as our [failings] deserve,” because “our God is kind and merciful, slow to anger, and forgiving, tender and most compassionate, most loving,” then we would have made great strides in our spiritual journey, to protect the People of God in our world. 

   And friends, we always must remember that for us “People of God,” loved and cherished, each of us, by God, there is the expectation that we will attempt to do the same in our lives as God has done for us.  Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians today gets at this, basically making the point that, “we are human in following Adam, and spiritual in following Jesus.  And you all know how we must struggle our whole lives between the “human” and the “spiritual” in becoming our best selves.  Indeed, we must look for balance.

   In Luke’s gospel today, we are confronted with some of Jesus’ most compelling words—this gospel is basically the “do unto others as you would have them do unto you” scripture.  And along with these compelling words, we see our brother Jesus spelling out how, in many ways that this can be done; “turning the other cheek to have it slapped too, give not only your coat, but your shirt as well—give to anyone who asks.”  And on a bad day, we may find ourselves saying, “really Jesus, I have to give that much!”

   Scripture scholar, Diane Bergant addresses Jesus’ call for over-the-top giving by saying that Jesus “always goes to the extreme” because he knows the human tendency, “to give less, or at best, just enough.”  She thinks it striking that in the 1^st reading, we find David doing exactly what Jesus asks of us today, that we treat others as we would like to be treated. 

   She goes on to say that what has come to be known as the “golden rule” of “doing unto others as we would have them do unto us” has in present day taken a turn where some folks look at this rule, translating it to say, “doing unto others, before they do unto you.”  The Pace e Bene quote earlier speaks to this tendency.  Without being political, I would say that much coming out of Washington these days speaks “to this turn.”

   And our brother Jesus, in my read of Scripture would say, “I made you are better than this—I ask much of you because I know you are capable of it.”  Luke continues sharing Jesus’ words, “Give, and it will be given to you…in full measure…the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.”  And to these words of our brother Jesus, I would add that in a society and world that still expects so much more service from its women than it does from its men, with little, if not less than, or no pay, we must look for that balance and remember to care for our personal selves. 

   I am presently reading Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new book, Something Lost, Something Gained wherein reflecting on our country’s exist from Afghanistan, she and a group of educated, compassionate women worked tirelessly, and around the clock to see that Afghan women would be equally air-lifted along with men before the takeover, once again of the Taliban who seemingly have no time for women who speak their minds and hearts for the betterment of all. 

   Hillary and her group of advocates were told early in the evacuation process that everyone’s “pet project” would not be able to be met.  Hillary’s comment that this “male ideology” in Washington that would eliminate “half the population” (women) was very telling of the world in which we live, so she and her friends found other ways to get some of the women out.  Jesus said, “the amount you measure out…”

   So my friends, in these times when it feels like such a “hard slug” to get us humans “to be kind,” I want to lift up just a few things that came to my attention, or that I was apart of this week that gives me hope for our continued journey of following Jesus. 

• The local newspaper, Winona Daily News, ran a story about a Lacrosse, WI group, WINN (What I Need Now) that is comprised of an area woman, Sue Graf, and a former homeless man, Bryan Holiday who traverse the area in a yellow van with food and other necessities which they give out to homeless folks that they find.  Additionally, they help people get connected to other groups in the city and surroundings that may give them assistance finding housing.
• Some of you may read, Asking Eric, a daily column in the Winona Daily News—he took the place of Amy and before her, Abby and Ann.  Someone wrote in this past week complaining about a friend who “constantly talks about how bad it is that so many people are homeless.” Now this same person has two homes that are completely paid for and doesn’t seem to realize that if she sold one of them, she could perhaps help some of the homeless.”

• Just before Valentines’ Day last week, I heard a public radio presentation on the amount of cut flowers coming to our country from developing countries to satisfy North Americans desire to give beautiful bouquets to loved ones.  The piece went on to interview people living in these flower-producing countries asking us to remember that the rain forests are annually being depleted to grow flowers—something for us Christians to indeed think about—and the juxtaposition seems to be that the sale of flowers does indeed help those who grow them…balance…
• Robert and I had the privilege of joining the postcard writing group at the Blue Heron Coffee Shop this past Thursday to write senators, representatives, and others, basically asking them to respect the oaths they took when elected to serve all the people, and especially, if they claim to be Christian, the least among us. 
• This past week also saw our national group of Catholic male bishops taking a stand against the meanness coming out of Washington—good to finally see this!

   Thus, my friends, when we act not only out of our humanity, but out of our spiritual selves too, we can come closer to imaging our brother Jesus. Let us keep trying, hoping, showing up, and striving to be our best.  Amen? Amen!