(12th March): Deuteronomy 26.16-19; Psalm 118; Matthew 5.43-48
Throughout this week our readings at mass have encouraged us to think carefully about vocation. ‘You must be holy’ we heard on Monday; today we hear Jesus’ intensification of this demand. ‘You must be perfect.’
Each of us knows painfully the pathetic meagreness of our own spiritual lives. But God responds to our needs irrespective of our worthiness. And as we begin to apply that principle to our own dealings with other inadequate human beings we grow into the life for which we were made; we become not just in virtue but in fact the children of God, the heirs of his kingdom, the bearers of the Light from his face shining onto the bleak darkness of a world separated from him. [Philippians 2.14-16]