Jeanette Renouf

My fellow seekers,

Even those who think of themselves as compassionate might feel challenged by Luke’s Gospel today (Luke 6: 27-38). It may be easy to turn the other cheek, but to pray for those who curse you? Perhaps that might be more difficult. Give to everyone who asks? Now there is a real challenge. Every street corner—every shopping center—seems to have someone asking.

These may be goals for us to aim for in a broader sense—to pause and reflect on how we respond to what Jesus says in these verses of Luke. We are truly encouraged to go beyond our comfort zones.

This could also inform how we vote and the kind of people we support to represent us in the government. I do not see us as a compassionate country these days; we certainly do not meet the goals as Luke outlines them.

Even just striving to meet Luke’s standards could be a pathway to healing, to becoming a caring nation, one that practices compassion. That may be unrealistic but it could be a guideline for the direction we want to travel.

Each of us is challenged to think seriously about the actions outlined in this Gospel message and how we live them out in our lives and the excuses we make to ourselves for not living them. It might be a good lesson to repeat in Advent and Lent next year.

Peace and love,

—Jeanette