Today in the Gospel, the Lord asks us—twice—to love our enemies. Then He gives us three very concrete ways to live this command: do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. At first glance, this seems like an impossible task: how can we love those who don’t love us? Even more, how can we love those we know for certain wish us harm? To love in this way is a gift of God—but we must be open to receive it.

In fact, if we think about it carefully, loving our enemies is also the wisest course of action, humanly speaking. An enemy who is loved finds himself disarmed. Loving him may very well be the first step toward him ceasing to be an enemy. Along the same line, Jesus goes on to say: “To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well” (Lk 6:29). At first this may sound like an excess of meekness. But what did Jesus Himself do when He was struck during His Passion? He did not strike back, but He responded with such firm charity that it must have given that angry servant pause: “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” (Jn 18:23).

All religions contain a version of the so-called Golden Rule: “Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.” But Jesus alone expresses it in the positive: “Do to others as you would have them do to you” (Lk 6:31). This Golden Rule is the very foundation of all morality. Commenting on this verse, St. John Chrysostom reminds us: “There is more here, for Jesus did not simply say: ‘wish good for others,’ but rather, ‘do good for others.’” That’s why the Golden Rule given by Christ can never remain a mere wish; it must be translated into action.