223. Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (A)

Meditations no. 571 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

The Law of Love, compendium of the Sermon on the Mount.

THAT day was memorable. It seemed like just another day in the public life of Jesus Christ. But now, after several months of showing with wonders that He is the awaited Messiah, the time has come to indoctrinate the disciples and many other people with a new wisdom. The Lord pronounces the Sermon on the Mount where, with firm strokes, the physiognomy of the Kingdom of Heaven is drawn.

With divine authority, Jesus Christ brings to full fulfillment the content of the Law given to Moses at Sinai. His language leaves no room for doubt: you have heard that it was said, (…) but I say to you: With the arrival of the time of grace and the assistance of the Holy Spirit, it will be possible not only to obey the precepts of the Law, which Jesus confirms, but to aspire to unsuspected goals: to be holy according to the Will of God.

You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, do not answer the wicked; but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, bring him the other also. Whoever wants to sue you to take away your tunic, leave him the cloak also. Whoever forces you to walk one mile, go with him two. To whom he asks, give to him; and do not shun anyone who wants to borrow something from you.

This teaching must have seemed demanding and difficult to fulfill to the disciples, as it would seem to us now, even though twenty centuries have passed, if we looked at it with the eyes of a purely human prudence. However, the Lord asks us to make this doctrine the life of our lives, in order to be true Christians, consistent with the teachings of the Master. “Many, measuring the precepts of God by their weakness and not by the grace or strength of the saints, say that the things prescribed are impossible, and that it is enough for virtue not to hate one’s enemies, because to love them is more than human nature can bear. But it must be borne in mind that Jesus Christ does not command impossible things, but perfect ones. Like what David did with Saul and Absalom, so did the martyr St. Stephen, who prayed for those who stoned him (Acts 7:60), and St. Paul, who wanted to be anathematized in the place of his persecutors (Rom 9:3). This is what the Lord taught us, and he also did it by saying: ‘Father, forgive them’ (Lk 23:34)”.

In ancient times, the law of retaliation was in force - an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth - which was an advance at the time because, by restoring equality, it allowed a certain justice in society. But the Lord establishes another, higher principle: to love others because they are the image and likeness of God, because God wills them for their own sake. Relationships with other people do not consist of a mere contract, nor an exchange of services; but are based on respect for the unrepeatable uniqueness of each person. We love people for themselves and, ultimately, for God. The legacy of Jesus Christ represents great progress for interpersonal relationships and for civilization as a whole: each society, each man, must aspire to the best, to perfection, according to his or her own abilities.

This path can be summed up in a single word: to love. To love is to have a big heart, to feel the concerns of those around us, to know how to forgive and to understand: to sacrifice oneself, with Jesus Christ, for all souls. If we love with the heart of Christ we will learn to serve, and we will defend the truth clearly and with love. To love in this way, it is necessary for each one of us to extirpate, from his or her own life, everything that hinders the Life of Christ in us: the attachment to our own comfort, the temptation to selfishness, the tendency to show off our own. Only by reproducing in ourselves will we be able to transmit it to others; only by experiencing the death of the grain of wheat will we be able to work in the bowels of the earth, transform it from within, make it fruitful.

Love of enemies.

JESUS CHRIST asks us for universal love, as a sign of Christian love that excludes no one. An inward love, deeply rooted: we rejoice in the good of others, we desire that their good increase or their evil disappear. An effective love, with works and truth, that leads to sacrifice, to understanding, to giving of what is ours.

How far are we to go in this love for others? So that there is no doubt that we are to love to the end, as our Redeemer, Jesus speaks to us of enemies. You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor” and you shall hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

We cannot exclude anyone from our charity. We love them in spite of everything, even if they behave badly, even if they have offended us. Certainly, we do not love them because of the evil they may have caused us, but we love this harm insofar as it helps us to fight more, to try to be better, to purify our defects, and even to improve our behaviors that may have been the cause of suffering in other people; and they encourage us to ask the Lord for forgiveness, etiam ignotis, even for the times we have done wrong without realizing it. This boundless love is the proper measure of the Christian, what marks us out as disciples of Christ. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not the tax collectors also do this? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what do you do more? Do not the pagans also do this?

The Lord asks us, if possible, to show in some way a special love to those who declare themselves enemies, so that they may be converted and return to the truth, because those who hate or despise others can hardly open themselves to Christ. Here, as in every circumstance, Jesus’ prayer on the Cross is the model: Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing. Our Father was always ahead, showing us the way to love those who do not love us. At Holy Mass, he said, I remember praying not only for my children, for my parents, for the parents of my children, but also for those who are on earth and want to bother us, and for those who have slandered us and have already gone to give an account to the Lord. I say: Lord, I forgive them so that You may forgive them and forgive our sins. I offer You suffrages for their souls: the same suffrages that I offer You for my children, and for my parents, and for the parents of my children. All the same!

The Lord is happy, and I am also very calm. I advise you the same: do not wish evil to anyone, never. Raising bad blood only leads to misfortunes; and how can we be unhappy, if we are children of God? We must know how to forgive.

Forgiving one’s enemies does not exempt you from the duty to defend the truth. This must be your attitude in the face of defamation. First, to forgive: to everyone, from the first moment and from the heart. “Then, to love: not to let a lack of charity escape you: always respond with love!

“But if your Mother, the Church, is attacked, defend her courageously; calmly, but firmly and with fortitude full of strength, prevent them from staining, or hindering, the path by which souls must go, who want to forgive and respond with charity, when they suffer personal injuries.

Throughout our lives we will meet people who cannot put aside resentment, resentment or anger. We will do them great good by helping them to distinguish between hatred of guilt and hatred of guilt; we will be able to remind them that Christ taught us to forgive because God has forgiven each of us a lot, and that we can always go to justice, if there has been a serious injury; but that inner peace and grace are worth more than any offense received. In the end, the best advice we can give them is to look at the crucifix, and to ask Jesus for help to learn to forgive.

“However, while in some cases we must suffer temporal things to be stolen from us, in others, while keeping charity, we must prevent it, not only for our own interest, but also to prevent thieves from being lost. We must fear thieves more than we must feel the loss of earthly things. When peace of heart is lost with respect to our neighbor for an earthly thing, it is evident that we love our neighbor less than things.” In the duties of charity, Jesus Christ asks that we have a divine measure: be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. In this way, the peace and grace of the Lord will dominate our homes and the whole world.

The forgiveness of offenses.

It is not easy to forgive when one has suffered an affront, real or apparent. However, Jesus wanted to make it easier for us to apologize with the spirit that we are taught in the Work; in such a way, that what was complicated becomes simple; what is difficult, easy; and what is expensive, affordable. I have no enemies, because I love everyone well, our Founder said. And on other occasions: I do not have to make any effort to love well those who treat us badly, those who have slandered us so much: and I do not lose any merit in saying it, because in me it is not a virtue, it is not a personal effort, but a gift that the Lord has given me.

If we foster a sense of our divine sonship, it will be easier for us to imitate God in his mercy: that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and sinners. We can perceive the joy we give to the Lord when we know how to behave as children of God with the children of God. And, says St. Augustine, “we become children of God by the power we have received, inasmuch as we fulfill the things that he commands us. And furthermore, he does not say: ‘Do these things, because you are children’, but: ‘Do these things, that you may be children’. When he calls us for this, he gives us his own example, telling us: ‘He who makes his sun rise on the good and on the bad, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’”.

The spirit of divine filiation will make it easier for us to discover that many offenses are fictitious and that, in reality, they have their origin in susceptibility, hasty judgment or pride. They are small things that self-love magnifies. If we give them a foothold, they can come back to our heads many times - even after years - resentments are renewed with greater virulence, the great goods received from those same people are forgotten; the imagination is triggered in childish retorts and, above all, God is offended with lack of charity and even justice, and peace is lost.

When the damage received is real, we must forgive immediately and sincerely want the good of those people. In the first place, we will pray that, if there was an offense against God, they will repent and the Lord will give them his grace. They are children of God like us: not only do we not consider them enemies, but we see in them benefactors; we pray for their well-being while they are alive and, when they die, that the Lord will give them eternal life. Charity is above all in understanding, our Father repeated to us. I have suffered a lot: I have always tried to be understood and they were determined not to do so. That is why I want to understand everyone; you must make an effort to understand everyone.

To love everyone well means to make an effort to forget, to keep only the good memories - as far as it is on our part - to frequent the deal so that there is no separation in the mind, to put more prayer and details of service, to consider that each one of us is partly to blame and that we have bothered them so many times or set a bad example, to look for the things that unite and reject what separates, to consider their talents and virtues and to give sincere thanks to God. Asking for forgiveness regularly, also for the small frictions that can occur in family life, enlarges the heart and makes it possible to forgive more easily: it makes us more like Christ.

We place in the hands of the Blessed Virgin our desire to forgive those who have offended us and that peace may shine forth in individuals and harmony among nations.