A Journey of Repentance, Renewal, and Return

Saturday of the First Week of Lent
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Scripture Reading
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5: 43-48)
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Reflection
“Love your enemies.” These words are easy to say after so many years of reading them in the Gospel, but they are hard words to live by. Joseph Campbell calls this teaching of Jesus the “high point of ethical teaching” in all of world history. No ethical teacher has demanded as much.
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Our enemies hate us. Real hatred is virulent; it wills and does harm to its objects in personal and vindictive ways. In the face of this kind of hostility, Jesus commands his disciples to love the very ones who despise us.
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The Greek word used in the Gospel for love is agape: it means selfless love that looks for no concession or return. Agapic love not an emotion: it is a decision to think and act compassionately and mercifully. We do not “feel” this kind of love, we choose it. When we love agapically we do not, and often can not, approve of what our enemy does, but we wish for and pray for his or her best interest; and we do nothing to harm or retaliate against them, and when we can, we help.
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Jesus is not merely giving us an ethical maxim here. We must act this way not because it’s the nice or right thing to do, but because we are “children of the Most High,” who is “kind to the ungrateful and wicked.” When we love our enemies, we are giving witness to the compassionate love of God himself; and when we do that we make the Kingdom of the merciful God visible and present. In our love for “the ungrateful and the wicked” God’s promised future of mercy and love breaks into the world. The Kingdom comes!
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Prayer
Compassionate God, your mercy knows no end, your kindness fills the whole universe with blessings. Thank you for loving us in our sinfulness and for sending your Son Jesus to save us from sin and death.
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Your love is freely given to all. Your rain falls on the just and the unjust; you are kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Give us the strength to love our enemies and do good to those who have done evil to us. In our love for those who have harmed us show the world your own boundless mercy and love.
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Through your Holy Spirit perfect us so that we might be like you, and show the world your loving character. All this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
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Activity
• Pray for someone who has harmed you in the past.
• Anonymously, do something kind for someone you don’t particularly like and as you do, remind your kindness reflects that of God, who is kind to the wicked and ungrateful.
• In prayer, thank God for his generous kindness to you.