For the time we have loved only those who love us, Lord, have mercy...
For the times we failed to love those whom we do not like so much, Christ, have mercy...
And so doing, for the times we have failed to be perfect just as our heavenly father is perfect, Lord, have mercy...
Be Compassionate and Be Perfect...
It’s almost always the case that we human beings engage in a barter exchange when it comes to love…
We are ready to give as much as we receive…
If you do this, I will do that…
You scratch my back, I will scratch your back…
This seems to be the normal rule of thumb that operates in and around us…
In the Gospel text of today, Jesus challenges this existing thesis of love, this transactional, barter exchange, or conditional way of love when he says… you have heard this, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
Then he gives his antithesis - But I say to you….love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you…
This is his new commandment, the commandment of love… an antithesis to what they had already known and practiced as love. An anti-thesis to what we often understand and practice as love…
Behind this new commandment/ behind his new anti-thesis, behind his new proposition, Jesus’ rationale/premise/his argument is this:
For if you love only those who love you, what is so great about it? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that?
Then, he goes on to give his synthesis…Jesus gives the aim of his mission, the aim of his thesis, in life… « Be perfect just as your heavenly father is perfect »
And, how are we going to be perfect?
By loving one another.. Especially by loving our enemies, those who persecute us, those who disrespect and neglect us, those who do not agree with us, and those who challenge us in life…
It can be my spouse, it can be my companion at my workplace, my children, my parents, my neighbors, my church members, or my team leaders…
Is it possible?
Yes, it is…. Because, in the first reading, as St. Paul in his 2nd letter to the Corinthians reminds us, our master/our guru, Jesus Christ, has already shown us that it is possible to love those who do not like us/ hate us/ insult us/ persecute us
The love of Jesus Christ for us was so much that, though he was rich, he made himself poor, empty, like a lamb dragged to be slaughtered, in order that we become rich, that we become whole, that we experience and remain in love…
How congruent is your definition of love with that of Jesus’ definition and his manifestation of love?
How perfect are you going to be during this week, in loving one another after the very example of Christ?
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