The Gospel according to Matthew (5:43-48)
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Reflection:
I’ve always wondered how it is that we can be asked to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. It doesn’t seem to be a very reasonable request, does it? Aren’t we more likely to want to lash out at our enemies or those who persecute or harm us? Both of those reactions are very human.
The Sermon on the Mount, where today’s Gospel is from and where we will have our daily Mass readings for another week or so to come, contains quite a few challenging sayings by Jesus. Love your enemies, be perfect, just two of those difficult sayings are in this very Gospel passage. How do we do that? I like to think that human beings can be kind and self-sacrificing like that, but I really believe that to truly live that way requires divine help.
The good news? You and I who are followers of Jesus have that divine help. The Holy Spirit within us is able to prompt us and guide us to love those who we would just not be able to love otherwise. It is the Holy Spirit that enables us to pray for our persecutors, those who are unkind to us, those who hurt us. The Holy Spirit who is Love, enables us to not pray for retribution or that those who hurt us may get “what is coming to them”. No, the Spirit helps us to pray that that other person may discover the truth of that divine Love in their lives.
We can help with that by our example. Is it easy? Not usually. Will it make a difference for us? Absolutely. Will it solve our problems with that other person who has hurt us? Not necessarily. It will, I think, give us a good sense of perspective. We can see that whatever that is that divides us is truly small, and maybe we may get a little of God’s perspective on the matter, too. That’s not a bad deal.
Action for the Day:
Take a moment and pray for someone who bugs you. Ask God to help you to love that person and believe that He will help you to do just that!
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