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 and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
The Gospel of the Lord.
This is part of the Sermon on the Mount. We have been reading from the Sermon on the Mount since the Gospel on Ash Wednesday. Two days ago, Thursday's Gospel ended with the words, "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets." We know it today as The Golden Rule.
Today's Gospel ends with the words, "So be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect." How can we do that. The Golden Rule is a start. But think how often we try the patience of our Heavenly Father; how often we seek forgiveness of the same sin we repeat, whether it be drinking or anger or spitefulness to one who has harmed us or failure to forgive or even wallowing in our unforgiveness. Remember when John Paul II visited and forgave the assassin who had tried to kill him. That assassin has now been freed.
If someone has wounded you or yours, is that person your enemy? Enmity grows by being reflected, and if you stopped reflecting it, in a while there would be less of it in the world. Usually we get into tangles of blaming and justifying and asking “who started it”; but all this is futile. The only way to stop it is to stop reflecting it. Gradually the tangle loosens and we are left with just ourselves, variously wounded and fearful. We are God's boisterous children. To know that is to know some kind of love.
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