I think I may grossly underestimate the extent to which Jesus was countercultural in his time on this Earth. Although we are told how countercultural our faith truly is, I feel as though sometimes we can see the world through such a lens of faith and fix our focus on holy men and women as models for our lives to such a point that we can forget this truth. In a world that holds up competition, success, and security as paramount in attaining the good life, the love of God stands as a challenge to these very ideals.

Who has not felt the urge to win? To overcome? To secure power or safety? While not bad in and of themselves, they can be hollow if not completely misguided if sought as ends in themselves. Today's readings show these do not make up God's motivation. Rather, he "delights...in clemency" and "removes guilt and pardons sin" (MI 7:18). God is not destructive but, since the beginning of time, is always creative and forgiving for the sake of continual creation. The love story of God and humanity is one of God's embrace and guidance of humanity as we come to understand our call to communion with him and one another. We are both results of and participants in God's ongoing creation.

If we are to show the love of God, to be countercultural, where do we begin? To whom do we extend this love? In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus provides the answer. What might seem like a slight to those closest to Jesus, his question and answer, rather, point to perhaps the most pressing question of our time, maybe even of every time: Who is my neighbor?

Who is your neighbor? 

To use the words of Fr. Greg Boyle, SJ, Jesus models how expansive and inclusive his jurisdiction is. With an outstretched hand, he welcomes all who do the Father's will. The fullness of our Christian faith cannot exist apart from community just as the love of God derives from God's trinitarian being. Communion is not an abstract theological concept simply to understand but rather a truth to be lived. May we hold each other as brothers and sisters, expand our own jurisdictions and so bring to our world the realization of God's unfailing love.