When I preach, I offer the Gospel free of charge…

 

Scripture readings for today's reflection can be found at Memorial of Saint Peter Claver, Priest | USCCB

Our readings from today are giving us a two-fold teaching. In our reading the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians, we hear of the importance of sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul is teaching that it is important to remember that we are to share our faith in Jesus Christ with all those in our lives without worrying about recompence. We are to be concerned with bringing others in our life to faith in God. But that doesn’t mean that we are called to come up and preach from the altar or preach on street corners about Jesus Christ. We share the Gospel of Jesus Christ in how we live out our lives as Catholic Christians: whether as a husband or wife, son, or daughter. We are called to live out our lives sharing the gospel with our family and friends by the regular practice of our faith and in how we treat those in our lives with love and respect. We are to love God with our whole being, and we are to love and respect those God has placed in our lives. This is how we preach the Gospel.

This brings us to the 2^nd part of what we are learning from today’s readings. In the gospel, our Lord calls us to be more concerned with how we live our lives in relationship with God, rather than worrying about how those around us are living their lives. Our Lord says, “Remove the wooden beam from your eye first.” We are all sinners in need of forgiveness. Each one of us have different struggles in how we develop that relationship with God. What our Lord is teaching us is that we are no better than those in our lives who we may feel are not living out their faith as well as we may feel they should. We need to look inward towards ourselves first to see where we need improvement. Then, by the regular use of confession and frequent reception of Holy Communion, we can be in position to “remove the splinter from our brother’s eye.” Through these sacraments of healing, we will be able to see where we fall short in our relationship with God and with others.  Then, once we receive that healing and forgiveness from God, we can in turn be there for others who may be struggling with their faith in God.

May God give us the grace to seek out His love and forgiveness in order to be good examples of what it means to be followers of Jesus Christ in a world that needs His love, peace and forgiveness.