It is painful to watch Jesus, in today's gospel, be demonized by the religious leaders of his day. Yet, as we know from our own experience, that is too often what we do to people who challenge us, even a way that is clearly from the Holy Spirit. I remember hearing a priest share that if he preached like Pope Francis - as he felt drawn to - he wouldn't be able to put a new roof on his parish church, because the people wouldn't like his preaching very much.

I think the invitation and the grace being offered each of us today comes in the form of a couple of movements. The first is the invitation to renew our personal relationship with Jesus. In doing so, we might discover any resistance we feel to being called to love and be merciful, the very way he has loved and been merciful to us. That's where the grace comes in. It is a gift from the Holy Spirit which will lead us to greater freedom and greater closeness with Jesus. Secondly, we can all examine any ways we might be demoralizing others. Do I find myself in any oppositional relationship with someone close to me? Is there something I can learn from that? I often discover then when I am about to judge someone or just feel deep opposition to someone, I can explore what's underneath all that tension and discover something in me I need to look at. For example, I may get upset at someone who is not living up to something I value deeply. So, I get all judgmental about it. If I stop and reflect on it a bit, I can often discover that there is some issue of resisting authority, which is also in me, and that reflection can be both freeing and allow mercy and compassion to replace my judgment of the other person.

This could be a great time to ask for deep desires for God's grace to free our hearts. We can ask to be open to let God do something in me. We can ask to grow in freedom in the way we related to others, especially anyone we might be tempted to demonize. We can ask for the grace to discover what our Lord wants to forgive and heal in me - what Jesus wants to release in me, so that I might be a person who grows in having a heart like his. These days can be grace-filled if my heart moves from severity and opposition to others and moves in the direction of compassion, mercy and deep self-giving love - with a renewal of my way of being with and for those around me. It might also be a time to ask for powerful graces, that my heart might grow in deeper compassion and care for my brothers and sisters who suffer in my city and around the world.

Lord, bless our journey with hearts like yours. Free us from our demonizing, and fill us with your own merciful and healing love.