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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)
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Gospel text (Mt 5:38-48): 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 only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Love your enemies: forgive them

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Pope Francis) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, the liturgy invites us to mull over the similarity between the law on Mount Sinai and the law on the Mount of the Beatitudes. Jesus tells us that we should love our enemies. If we do not we should be like heathens...

But, how can we love people who do so much harm? Jesus tells us two things. First, look to the Father who makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good. His love is a gift for everyone. Jesus’ hint consists in imitating the Father to reach "the perfection of love". He forgives His enemies. Additionally, He asks us to pray for our enemies.

—Loving our enemies "impoverishes us", as it happened to Jesus, who lowered Himself and became poor for us. It is the path God travelled, until conquering the grace that has made us all rich. This is the mystery of Salvation: in loving our enemy we become poorer. But that poverty is the seed of fertility for others, just as the poverty of Jesus became the grace of salvation for all of us.