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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