One Minute Reflection – 18 June – Tuesday of the Eleventh week in Ordinary Time, Year C, Gospel: Matthew 5:43–48 and the Memorial of Blessed Osanna Andreasi OP (1449-1505)
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”…Matthew 5:44
REFLECTION – “You have often heard it said that we are living through a marvellous time, a time of great men… It is easy to understand why people long for a strong and capable leader to arise… This kind of neo-paganism [Nazism] believes all nature to be an emanation of the divine…; it admires a race that is nobler and purer than any other… From this comes the cult of race and blood, the cult of its own people’s heroes.
By starting out from so mistaken an idea, this view of things can lead to capital errors. It is tragic to see how much enthusiasm, how many efforts are placed at the service of such an erroneous and baseless ideal! However, we can learn from our enemy. We can learn from his deceitful philosophy how to purify and improve our own ideal, we can learn how to develop great love for this ideal, how to arouse immense enthusiasm and even a readiness to live and die for it, how to strengthen our hearts to incarnate it in ourselves and in others…
When we talk about the coming of the Kingdom and pray for its coming, we are not thinking of a discrimination according to race or blood but of the brotherhood of all, for all men are our brothers – not excluding even those who hate and attack us – in a close bond with the One, who causes the sun to rise on the good and the bad alike (Mt 5:45).”…Blessed Titus Brandsma (1881-1942) Martyr
PRAYER – Almighty God, to whom this world, with all it’s goodness and beauty belongs, give us grace joyfully, to begin this day for Christ Your Son, in Him and with Him and to fill it, with an active love for all Your children, even those who may not like or who do us harm. Help us to love as You do so that we may become like You. Blessed Osanna Andreasi, you who spread your charity far and wide, pray for us. Through Christ our Lord, with the Holy Spirit, one God, forever, amen.
AnaStpaul 