IN JESUS’ NAME … WE FIND HOPE!!
Saturday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time
My dear encountered couples:
Sometimes Jesus was very gentle with sinners, other times quite harsh. With those sinners who were closed and had their minds made up about everything, like some of the Pharisees, he treated them as in the manner of a safecracker with the door of a safe -with a stick of dynamite. He said things to them that he hoped would blast at least a tiny crack in the tightly, soldered shut doors of their hearts and minds. With them he was stern and sharp.
But for sinners in which he saw good in their hearts, however were weak and confused, lacking in knowledge, sparse in ability, tired and discouraged, he used a velvet glove. He didn’t want to scare them away. A scolding like he gave the Pharisees might shut tight the doors to their hearts. So instead of a fire and brimstone approach, he was kind and gentle. He offered them hope.
Jesus was the one foretold by Isaiah the prophet when he spoke of God as saying: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my loved one in whom I delight. I will endow him with my spirit and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not contend or cry out, nor will his voice be heard in the streets. The bruised reed he will not crush; the smoldering wick he will not quench...In his name, the Gentiles will find hope.”
Jesus is gentle with us. Let us prefer that manner in our dealings with others.
