Matthew 5:43-48

2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Psalm 146:2, 5-6ab, 6c-7, 8-9a

Matthew 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:

“You have heard that it was said,

You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

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.

For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?

Do not the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brothers only,

what is unusual about that?

Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I seek to be perfect and merciful as you are perfect and merciful. You are patient and do not give up on me. You seek me out like the lost sheep when I stray, bind my wounds with love, and bring me home to you.

Encountering the Word of God

1. Love Your Enemies: Some of the stumbling blocks found in the Old Testament are the commands of Moses to hate and kill enemies, as found in Deuteronomy 20. Many atheists point to these laws as internal contradictions within the Bible and ask, “How could a just and loving God command the extermination of entire peoples, men, women, and children?” One key to respond to this question, is to point out that the Bible itself declares that some of the laws given by Moses in Deuteronomy were not good (see Ezekiel 20:25). While the laws in Exodus given by the Lord God at Mt. Sinai, such as the Ten Commandments, were good, Ezekiel judges that some of the laws in Deuteronomy given by Moses were not good. What Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount is bringing those “not-good laws” in Deuteronomy to fulfillment by correcting them. Just as he had to correct the Law of Moses that permitted divorce, he also had to correct the Law of Moses that commanded the hatred and extermination of enemies. Love of our enemies and prayer for our persecutors are the way of the New Covenant, which brings the Old Covenant to fulfillment and perfection.

2. Divine Recompense: Jesus invites his listeners to reflect on how our actions will be recompensed. In the Old Testament and Jewish thought, committing sinful actions was likened to accumulating debt, while performing righteous actions was likened to accumulating credit, wages, recompense, and “treasure in the heavens.” Earlier in the Sermon, Jesus told his listeners that their righteousness needed to surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees. Here, Jesus speaks about loving those who love you and greeting our brethren as actions that are not part of the surpassing righteousness needed to store up heavenly treasure. Loving our enemies, praying for our persecutors, being merciful toward the unrighteous, giving alms in secret, and hidden fasting are all righteous actions that will earn wages that God will pay us in the life to come. These actions are meritorious not because we have the power to do them on our own, but because they are empowered by the divine grace that Jesus himself has merited for us by his own righteous actions.

3. Paternal Perfection: Jesus ends the first part of the Sermon, which focuses on bringing the Law (Torah) of Moses to fulfillment, by directing us to look toward our supreme model – God the Father. If we have a question about how we are to act, we are to look to how God the Father acts. How does God the Father treat sinners who offend him? How does God the Father deal with the unrighteous? How does God love? In this way, the Beatitudes that begin the Sermon are not merely the exhortations of a teacher who proposes an ideal for his students to follow, but they are a description of Jesus himself. Jesus is poor in spirit, the one who mourns, is meek, hungers and thirsts for righteousness, is merciful, is pure of heart, is a peacemaker, and is persecuted for the sake of righteousness. The question, “What would Jesus do?” is a question we should all ponder in prayer when contemplating our course of action.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you teach me that the heart of your Father’s Law is love. You ask that my faith in you flourish and be completed in acts of love. On the Cross, you prayed for your enemies and asked that they be forgiven. Help me recall your example when I struggle to pray and forgive.

Living the Word of God: Have I ever prayed for my enemies? Why do I consider someone an enemy? What do I truly want for my enemies and those who persecute me? Do I ask for their conversion from sin, or do I want to see them vanquished?