APPARENTLY today’s culture teaches us to love only those who love us, like only those who like us, to some point to like only those who look like us or fall under our standards and disregard those we consider less than us. And what is worse is when our culture promotes violence and fear.
Today you have to be ‘useful’ to be valuable. We measure others like the way we measure things. We seem to love people like the way we love things. Love has totally lost its meaning.
In our gospel last Sunday, February 24, Jesus continues with his “sermon on the plain.” Here Jesus challenges us to love differently from the way we normally love. From loving differently, Jesus now invites us to act differently. Love is a verb. Love is revolutionary and turns everything inside out. He is asking his disciples to do what is considered impossible and not the normal way to act. Jesus is inviting you to do the same. This is the norm for Jesus.
Love your enemies! Jesus calls us to a demanding and challenging task - to love your enemies, not to curse them, to present the other cheek to anyone who slaps you on one cheek, and do not protest or complain when somebody takes what is yours.
In order to help us understand what He wants us to do, he gives us two statements: the Golden Rule, “Treat others as you would like people to treat you!” (Lk 6:31) and, “Be merciful as your Father in Heaven is merciful!” (Lk 6:36).
Jesus not only want to change the situation but he wants to change the whole system. He started a revolution - a revolution from the heart. He wants to build a world from a new experience of a God, He calls, Abba (Father), who is full of tenderness and mercy. Jesus is counter-cultural.
One gospel commentator wrote that, “Love cannot depend on what I receive from others. True love should want the good of others, independently of what he or she does for me. Love should be creative, because that is how God’s love is for us: ‘Be merciful, as your Heavenly Father is merciful.’”
Jesus’ words are universal. In Luke’s Gospel, the Golden Rule says, “Treat others as you would like people to treat you!” (Lk 6:31). Almost all religions in the whole world have the same Golden Rule expressed in different ways. This is a sign of Jesus’ universal and inclusive desire which is expressed in His actions and words. Today Jesus calls us to make the choice - to choose in favor of the poor, the broken, those considered worthless and garbage. We are called to love differently.
Pope Francis reflecting on the same Gospel reading in which the Lord tells his disciples, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you,” the Holy Father affirms that this is a model of Christian life – of unconditional love in action. And Pope Francis recognizes that this new way of the Gospel is difficult to live by.
And so I end this brief reflection with the prayer of Pope Francis, “Lord, give me the grace to become a good Christian, because I cannot do it on my own.”