Over the past couple of weeks the daily Gospel readings have been from Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5).  Beginning with the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-12) and then continuing with Jesus’ litany of “you have heard…but I say to you”  Jesus, in “fulfilling” the Mosaic law, lays out a moral code and gives us the prescription for how to live our lives.  Jesus goes way beyond a morality centered on our external actions and emphasizes the critical importance of what is going on in our hearts – the need for us to maintain an inner disposition of mercy, forgiveness, and love.  In some respects Jesus sets a pretty high bar for us, and being faithful to his teaching is sometimes pretty tough.   It is only in with God’s grace working in us that we can live up to this calling.

Just this past Sunday we witnessed that grace in action.  In Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 7:36-50) we heard of the encounter between Jesus and the adulteress.  We saw God’s infinite love, mercy and forgiveness extended to the repentant woman.  We hear of the woman’s response – a response of great love in return.

And that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about  this relationship of mutual love between God and us.  It is God’s love for us that enables us to love.  It is God’s mercy towards us that enables us to be merciful.  It is God’s forgiveness of us that enables us to be forgiving.

Love, mercy, and forgiveness. This is the grace God bestows on us.  And it is by remaining open to God’s grace, and by allowing it to flood us that helps us to live out God’s law and moves us to extend love, mercy, and forgiveness to those around us.

It is God’s free and unconditional love, mercy, and forgiveness that restores us and reconciles us to God.  Our returning that love back to God and extending that love to each other is all God asks of us.