Love beyond the veil, love with the love of Christ Jesus our Lord. For if there is no mercy and forgiveness, there is no love. How then can we account to our Lord that we have loved one another as He loved us? How can we say we have kept His command? How then will unbelievers ever come to experience His love through us?
If we want to be forgiven then we must forgive as taught to us by our Lord in the prayer He gave us. This is explicitly clear when He said ,”If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive yours.” Matt 6:15 Therefore seek the Lord’s grace to be able to forgive and He will grant it to you. For He our Lord and God forgave us from the Cross when He took our sins upon Himself, so that by His death and resurrection we can live in His love, mercy and grace. Jesus came down from Heaven so that united with and through Him we can ascend with Him into His Heavenly Kingdom. So let us live our lives with unveiled faces, so as to reflect the brightness of our Lord by our mercy and love for all. Amen
First reading
2 Corinthians 3:15-4:1,3-6 ·
The veil over their eyes will not be removed until they turn to the Lord
Even today, whenever Moses is read, the veil is over their minds. It will not be removed until they turn to the Lord. Now this Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image that we reflect; this is the work of the Lord who is Spirit.
Since we have by an act of mercy been entrusted with this work of administration, there is no weakening on our part. If our gospel does not penetrate the veil, then the veil is on those who are not on the way to salvation; the unbelievers whose minds the god of this world has blinded, to stop them seeing the light shed by the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For it is not ourselves that we are preaching, but Christ Jesus as the Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. It is the same God that said, ‘Let there be light shining out of darkness’, who has shone in our minds to radiate the light of the knowledge of God’s glory, the glory on the face of Christ.
Gospel
Matthew 5:20-26
Anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it
Jesus said to his disciples: ‘If your virtue goes no deeper than that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.
‘You have learnt how it was said to our ancestors: You must not kill; and if anyone does kill he must answer for it before the court. But I say this to you: anyone who is angry with his brother will answer for it before the court; if a man calls his brother “Fool” he will answer for it before the Sanhedrin; and if a man calls him “Renegade” he will answer for it in hell fire. So then, if you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with your brother first, and then come back and present your offering. Come to terms with your opponent in good time while you are still on the way to the court with him, or he may hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. I tell you solemnly, you will not get out till you have paid the last penny.’
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