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| Image by Denis Doukhan from Pixabay |
Day two at The Catholic Company.
Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount and states, " You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." Yikes! This is difficult for everyone (Christians and non-Christians). The sort of perfection asked for is a perfection of charity: "All Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of charity" (LG 40 § 2). We are called to love even our enemies. We are called to forgive everyone and in the Lord's Prayer we ask our Father to forgive us as we have forgiven others.
Jesus also warns that we shouldn't display our piety and prayers in order to be seen by others. That may be an "oops!" for me. That we do these things or the giving of alms should be for the love of others and the love of God, and not so that others may look on us favorably ("oh, look at that holy man!").
And Jesus teaches us to pray. We're not to "heap up empty phrases" with "many words." That is, our prayer should be meaningful. In our liturgy, we are asked, "lift up your hearts" and we respond: "we lift them up to the Lord." That is, we bring our minds, souls, and hearts into the presence of God. The warning about many words is not against making the prayers too long or being repetitive but rather against thinking that long prayers or repeating yourself will be in itself efficacious. It can't be wrong to say "I love you" to God many times during the day. And Jesus gives us the Lord's Prayer as the model of prayer.
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