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.
We're decent at loving those who love us. We even succeed at loving those with whom we have a neutral relationship. We manage to make concrete acts of charity toward our loved ones and even to strangers throughout the world. But we are lousy at loving our enemies. Of course, we imagine ourselves too perfect to have enemies. But there are those who persecute us, even if only to cut us off in traffic. There are people who don't want to listen to us or take our concerns to heart. We may not call these people enemies. Regardless, we find a challenge in praying for them. Our prayers may involve them. We may pray that they change so that our own lives can go more smoothly. But do we pray for them for their own sake?
The standard we are called to live isn't a human standard. It isn't the way the world normally works. Enemies don't love enemies, in general. We are called to more.
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Every time we manage to love someone who did everything he could to alienate himself from our love we are witnessing the love of the Father to him. Let us listen to what the LORD commands. He is making us a people peculiarly his own, perfect as he is perfect. He is making a people of those who were once enemies of God and of one another. He is making them friends, brothers, and sisters.
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the LORD.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
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