Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Homily: Tuesday of the 11th Week of Ordinary Time - Loving our Enemies

Throughout Jesus’ great Sermon on the Mount he teaches us a number of things: how to be holy, how to love our fellow man, how to be in right relationship with God and how to imitate God in your generosity, how to get to heaven. 

Today he offers one of his most difficult teachings:   He tells us today that not only are we to love our neighbor, but our enemies as well, those who persecute you, those who sin against you, those who your country is at war with, those who cut you off in traffic, those who may have bullied you a half a century ago in grade school, those who seem to be bringing ruin to our country or our church.  Love them. 

This is a difficult teaching for us, and it must have been a startling teaching for the original hearers of the Sermon on the Mount.  In first-century Jewish Palestine, “your enemies” and “those who persecute you” first and foremost brought to mind the Roman oppressors.  Jesus challenges his disciples to love and pray for the very people who were occupying their land, taxing them heavily, and treating them with violence and injustice. 

Such radical love for your persecutors, Jesus says, is precisely what will make them children of the heavenly Father

Therefore, you must love those without expecting anything in return.  Love without regard to race or creed.  Christ like love is not contained by boundaries of family or tribe, we must embrace even those who have harmed us or cannot repay us.

Echoing Our Lord, Saint Maximus the Confessor wrote, “Readiness to do good to someone who hates us is a characteristic of perfect love.”  Are you ready to act charitably towards all, irrespective of color, distance, nation, or character?


May we show kindness, patience, gentleness, forgiveness to all men, our neighbors and our enemies today and all days, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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