Mt 5: 43-48
“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, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Let Your Love Grow
The Bible tells us we are created in the image and likeness of God. It also tells us that God is love and forgiveness. So if that is true, we are meant to be loving and forgiving, too.
God has these attributes by his very nature, but we have to pray and work to acquire them. That means trying to go against our natural disposition to hate or punish those who have offended or harmed us (or those we love). It means working against desires to “even the score” or “pay back” others. It takes work.
But our faith urges us to make an effort to be like God, like Christ, who forgave even those who were crucifying him and Peter who denied him.
—Fr. Frank Majka, SJ, is Midwest Jesuit priest praying for the world, the Church, and the Society of Jesus who lives at the St. Camillus Jesuit Community in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin.
Prayer
Lord, I seek your forgiveness for the things that I have done wrong, but it can be hard for me to offer forgiveness to those who have hurt me. Open my heart to offer the same mercy to others that I receive from you. Amen.
—Jesuit Prayer team