2 Cor 8:1-9 / Matthew 5:43-48 (2019)
If we really had a choice, would we want to be a Catholic? Or would we just want to be a pagan, or just a free-thinker?
To be a pagan, or a free-thinker seems easy enough - just do as others do.
Or as how the gospel would put it - love those who love us, do good to those who do good to us, smile at those who smile at us, etc.
On the flip side then we can also hurt those who hurt us and take an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
Yet, is this what life is all about? Are we just to live a mundane, monotonous and a dull life that goes just by instinct and creature senses?
So the question in today's gospel is asking us this: Are we doing anything exceptional?
If we call ourselves Christians, are we just following what the rest of the world is doing?
So as Christians, if we are not doing anything exceptional, then we may be like "pagan-Christians".
Jesus showed us how to live our lives with meaning and purpose.
As the 1st reading puts it : He was rich but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty.
In following Christ, our life is none other than that of the life of Christ, which is a call to the perfection in a life of love.
As Christians, we choose a life of love. Any other choice is not worth it.