Saturday in the First Week of Lent, March 12, 2022

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 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.”

“You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.”  The Lord Jesus does not identify this saying as from the Law or the Prophets.  He says only that it was a saying his disciples had heard.  It is in fact not to be found in the Law or the Prophets.  It seems only a common saying, based on fear: we must love our neighbors in order to protect ourselves; if we try to love our enemies, we will suffer harm from them.  The Lord, however, teaches that we must love our enemies as well as our neighbors.  That is, we should desire what is truly good for them and, to the extent it is possible, to strive to help them achieve it.  The Lord tells us how best to do this: “Pray for those who persecute you.”  Many deny the efficacy of prayer.  Others say, “All we can do now is to pray”, as though prayer is kept as a last resort.  On the contrary, it ought to be our first resort in all circumstances.  Our prayers for our enemies will obtain the graces they need for their conversion, though whether they take advantage of the grace is up to them.  We learn from this verse the identity of our enemies: “those who persecute you.”  Our persecutors come in many different forms: teachers who propagate falsehoods, those who pass laws restricting religion, heretics, abusers of any kind, slanderers, anyone who threatens our safety, and people of this kind.  And while it may be extremely difficult to pray for a wicked person who has injured us, we do so looking not at them, but at Almighty God, who “makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”  We love our enemies and act on this love by praying for them because our God loves them.  He loves them as a parent loves a child who has committed a crime.  He loves them in spite of everything, and even though they do not know his love.  Our Heavenly Father loves without reservation.

“For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?”  It is good that we love those who love us, but “the tax collectors do the same.”  That is, we will no more receive a reward for this action than the wicked will.  “And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that?”  The Lord tells us in these words that it is indeed unusual for someone to love his enemies, but we must remember that we are supposed to act in unusual ways as Christians, following the law of love and not the allurements of self-indulgence, as most people do.  “Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”  Now, in this context, the Lord is speaking about having perfect love.  We can love perfectly according to our human ability, just as the Father loves perfectly according to his infinite divinity.  To do this, we need to pray for grace that we might know God’s love for us.  Knowing his love, unworthy of it though we are, will enable us to love with the love with which we are loved.  The fullest example of this is the Son’s love for us.  We also have before us the examples of the saints who gave up everything this world values in to serve the poor, the lepers, prisoners in the galleys, newly arrived slaves, and those who sacrificed their lives to save a stranger.  This perfect love will grow our capacity to experience the love of God.  As we love so shall we know love.  And we shall know the fullness of God’s love in heaven as we look upon him.