DAILY GRACE
June 16, 2020, Tuesday of the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time
Scripture: Matthew 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.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Meditation
““. . . . love your enemies. . . .”
If we thought yesterday’s passage from Matthew was difficult, how much more so this one! If we could vote Gospel passages “off the island,” like so many contestants in the reality show “Survivor,” this one would probably be voted off first. Part of us wishes Jesus had never said it. Indeed, personal experiences of enormous evil or wrongdoing, of real, sworn enemies, can make us dismiss the whole teaching of Jesus as impossible. Jesus’ addition of “be perfect, . . . as your heavenly Father is perfect” magnifies the seeming impossibility. He can’t really mean that, can he?
Jesus speaks of the magnanimity of God here. Far from measuring out every favor, our heavenly Father lets his rain fall on the just and the unjust. Jesus appeals to us to show our family resemblance to the Father. Rather than dole out our mercies, we ought to be (like our heavenly Father) prodigal with them. Saint Paul spelled it out for the early Christians, “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Eph. 4:32). Later in that same letter to the Ephesians he calls us to be “imitators of God, as beloved children” (5:1).
Maybe it is easier to interpret Jesus’ admonition to “be perfect” in terms of flawlessness, a goal so lofty we can dismiss it out of hand. I’m inclined to believe however Jesus was using exaggeration to get his point across. Be like God, your Father in heaven —- in open-heartededness —- not just towards your friends but also towards those who have offended you. The question I guess at that point becomes in the case of the latter: “What would that actually require?”
Prayer
Lord, help me to face the difficult people/ person in my life with the kindness, compassion, and spirit of forgiveness that you and Saint Paul described. Surely you and he both had to practice kindness, compassion, and forgiveness yourselves. Here and now I lift my difficult people up to you. Lord, you know I can’t do this on my own power. There’s a big part of me that doesn’t even want to do it. But I don’t want to be bitter. I don’t want to be consumed by hate. Help me. Live in me, O Redeemer. Amen.
Contemplation
“Be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love” (Eph. 5:1-2).