Dear Brothers and Sisters,
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ This was to limit the amount of damage you could do to the one who hurt you. Before this law if someone took out your eye then you might kill him and his family. So this was a great advance for society. One of Cain’s sons said, “I will take seventy-seven fold revenge to the one who hit me.”
The next logical step after an eye for an eye could have been: if you hit me in the face, I will not strike back at all. But Jesus goes much further. If you hit me in one cheek offer the other one as well. You and I might say this is crazy, how can we defeat evil but allowing it. Isn’t that stupid or weak of me to not punish the one who is violent? Evil will continue to grow if we follow this gospel.
But I would say that far more courage and selflessness is shown if we react as Jesus tells us today (Matthew 5: 38-48). Maybe you would surprise your adversary with compassion and love and forgiveness as Christ would do. It would be a far more efficient and constructive action and will put the evil doer at the risk of conversion. When we act in this way, which we can do only if we have the Holy Spirit, we add one more stone to the Kingdom of Heaven. A friend of mine asked his brother for forgiveness when there was some misunderstanding about money and that brought peace to the relationship. Don’t be afraid to surprise your adversary with love.
The gospel said: you will love your enemies. It is a future promise that you one day will be able to do only with God’s help. The one telling you this will give you the power to do it. We don’t love everyone because they are worthy of our love or because we are very people, who come to church every Sunday and pray everyday. We can only love this way if we have the spirit of God, if we are his children. We are made for this. We are made in the image and likeness of the Father, who loves like this.
When we have zeal for God and for other people to know him and for our kids to love him then we don’t get cynical or nasty or always complaining. Zeal is to have this desire to help everyone to know this love that God wants to give us. To do all that we can to tell people about it and in the first place to live it ourselves. Zeal is to not worry about money and what is fair and just but to really want only what God wants for us and for others.
The sun and the rain are beautiful images that Christ uses in the gospel. The sun and the rain will fall upon the bad and the good alike. It keeps falling and never stops falling. Our love should be this way, especially to those who are dry and thirsty around us. When we love in this way and leave our puny little world, our mean ideas and our cynical thoughts then we get the full benefit of the sun and rain falling upon us again, as if it was the first time.
The greatest talent that I have is to love. So let’s take a bigger risk and love the ones we don’t like, why not? With the Holy Spirit in our lives it is possible if you believe this gospel. Let us beg God to help us to love our enemies, the ones who treat us badly. It maybe someone from close to you.
If we love only those who love us that is very nice and comfortable and balanced. We can be perfectly self-satisfied to love those from my country, who are my age and have the same tastes as we do. But doesn’t God want something much greater for us? Wouldn’t life be so much more exciting when we love people who are so different from us? Wouldn’t my life be richer and different and never dull if I love in this way?
If there is an absence of love today in your life and in mine then it is an invitation to love God. I have a big hole in my life without my mom. God wants to fill that with many other people. He is doing it already and my free time hardly exists. Maybe you have a hole also and the Lord is inviting you to love as he loves. Don’t be afraid to let yourself be invaded by his Spirit so that you can love like God loves us.