+(Intro) Our first reading from Deuteronomy this morning calls us to be a people peculiarly God’s own, observing God’s laws and decrees. So let us take a moment to be mindful of how we may fail to be peculiarly God’s own.
(After the gospel) Our gospel highlights the difference between the Old and New Testaments. Believers were once allowed to hate their enemies, but Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to pray for those who would harm us. This does not mean, of course, we never protect ourselves from harm as is sought to be done in military service.
Jesus is addressing our everyday lives. It is easy enough to love those who love us, but we are being called to love those who oppose us, to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.
We can easily enough say that God is love but to truly act accordingly, means loving without limits, loving those who want to harm us in some way. We live in a world where there is a lot of conflict so let us pray that Christ’s love may reign in our hearts and in our world.
Deut. 26:16-19; Matt 5:43-48