The Golden Rule
 Read this week’s readings here.

Prior to this first reading, Saul was anointed by God, but as King he was disobedient to God’s commands. As a result, Saul could no longer hear God.  God, through the prophet Samuel, was preparing David to be King.  At this point, David had his own army in Judah.   David is refusing to kill Saul because he is anointed by God. David, in contrast to Saul, is obeying God and is refusing to kill an anointed King.  The LORD left the camp in a deep sleep, whereby David took Saul’s spear and water to show that he was there and he was obeying God.  Eventually, after this reading, Saul is killed by the Philistines and David becomes King.
  

Love Your Enemies

Jesus is getting deep into forgiveness and mercy in this teaching.  The Old Testament taught to love your neighbors, but Jesus is taking this even further – telling disciples to love your enemies.  This must have been a shocking teaching to the occupied Jews, who thought that the Romans living all around them as enemies in their midst.  Jesus is now telling the disciples to love a people who believe in everything they abhor.  We are called to do this today.  It is so much easier to consider those we disagree with as enemies instead of neighbors.  Jesus is calling us all to do this better.

  

“Do to others as you would have them do to you.” in Luke 6:31 is called the Golden rule. God is calling the disciples, and us, to treat our fellow humanity with grace and mercy. There is also a command not to judge.  This commandment is not meant for us to skip discerning right and wrong; we are asked not to make the additional step of making a judgement of a person’s soul.  Every person has the opportunity for forgiveness and conversion.  It is not our place to judge souls – that is the domain of God alone.  The sacrament of Reconciliation is made in “persona Christi” – in the person of Christ.  It is always Christ who forgives us.

  

These links are articles I used for researching the Friday Update.

 

I also use the USCCB NAB Bible and its footnotes extensively.