SATURDAY, 1ST WEEK OF LENT MASS READINGS AND COMMENTARIES:
“LOVE YOUR ENEMIES “(Mt 5:43-48).”
Saturday, 1st week of Lent
MASS READINGS
READING I
Dt 26:16–19
Moses spoke to the people, saying: “This day the Lord, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the Lord: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the Lord is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God, as he promised.”
RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
Blessed are they whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord.
Blessed are they who observe his decrees,
who seek him with all their heart.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
You have commanded that your precepts
be diligently kept.
Oh, that I might be firm in the ways
of keeping your statutes!
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
I will give you thanks with an upright heart,
when I have learned your just ordinances.
I will keep your statutes;
do not utterly forsake me.
R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!
VERSE BEFORE THE GOSPEL
This is the favorable time, this is the day of salvation.
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 and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
GOSPEL COMMENTARY
Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said: You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
- Our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us to love our neighbor which is a commandment present in the Law of Moses, with the word, “neighbours” referring to the Israelites.
- However, as regards to hating one’s enemy, that is, those who are not Israelites, this teaching is not present in the Old Law, but comes from the erroneous rabbinical interpretation of the Law of Moses during his time.
But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you,
- Our Lord corrects the erroneous rabbinical interpretation which was widespread during his time with the above words: love for one’s enemies and prayers for those one’s persecutors.
- He does so with an authority which could only come from someone who has the conscience of being sent by God and considers Himself as the definitive interpreter and interpretation of the Law as well.
- With this, Jesus establishes the novelty of Christianity: love, compassion, forgiveness to those who do us harm. “For what reason?,” one might ask. Our Lord immediately gives us the answer as a continuation.
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
- The above words eloquently express the reason for loving those who do us harm: so that we may be children of the heavenly Father who does not discriminate between the good and evil people but rather grants good things to everyone without exception.
- In this we could find God’s perfection, to which all of us are called: a perfection of love which is considered as the very heart of the Gospel and the revolution of Our Lord Jesus Christ’s message.
Dear brethren in Christ, Jesus loved and prayed for those who did him harm: Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. And he asks each one of us to love others as I have loved you. Shall we then keep on being obstinate and hard-headed in maintaining our stand to hate and abhor those who do us harm?
Gospel Commentary from the Navarre Bible, Commentary to the Gospel of St. Matthew (with permission)
- 43 The first part of this verse — “You shall love your neighbour” — is to be found in Leviticus 19:18. The second part — “hate your enemy” — is not to be found in the Law of Moses.
- However, Jesus’ words refer to a widespread rabbinical interpretation which understood “neighbours” as meaning “Israelites”.
- Our Lord corrects this misinterpretation of the Law: for him everyone is our neighbour (cf. the parable of the Good Samaritan in Lk 10:25-37).
- 43-47 This passage sums up the teaching which precedes it. Our Lord goes as far as to say that a Christian has no personal enemies. His only enemy is evil as such — sin — but not the sinner.
- Jesus himself put this into practice with those who crucified him, and he continues to act in the same way towards sinners who rebel against him and despise him.
- Consequently, the saints have always followed his example — like St Stephen, the first martyr, who prayed for those who were putting him to death.
- This is the apex of Christian perfection — to love, and pray for, even those who persecute us and calumniate us. It is the distinguishing mark of the children of God.
- 46 “Tax collectors”: the Roman Empire had no officials of its own for the collection of taxes: in each country it used local people for this purpose.
- These were free to engage agents (hence we find references to “chief tax collectors”: cf. Lk 19:2). The global amount of tax for each region was specified by the Roman authorities; the tax collectors levied more than this amount, keeping the surplus for themselves: this led them to act rather arbitrarily, which was why the people hated them. In the case of the Jews, insult was added to injury by the fact that the chosen people were being exploited by Gentiles.
- 48 Verse 48 is, in a sense, a summary of the teaching in this entire chapter, including the Beatitudes.
- Strictly speaking, it is quite impossible for a created being to be as perfect as God.
- What our Lord means here is that God’s own perfection should be the model which every faithful Christian tries to follow, even though he realizes that there is an infinite distance between himself and his Creator.
- However, this does not reduce the force of this commandment; it sheds more light on it. It is a difficult commandment to live up to, but against this we must take account of the enormous help grace gives us to go as far as to tend towards divine perfection.
- Certainly, the perfection which we should imitate does not refer to the power and wisdom of God, which are totally beyond our scope: here the context seems to refer primarily to love and mercy. Along the same lines, St Luke quotes these words of our Lord: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36; cf. note on Luke 6:20-49).
- Clearly, the “universal call to holiness” is not a recommendation, but a commandment, of Jesus Christ.
- “Your duty is to sanctify yourself. Yes, even you. Who thinks that this task is only for priests and religious?
- “To everyone, without exception, our Lord said: ‘Be ye perfect, as my heavenly Father is perfect’” (J. Escrivá, The Way, 291).
- This teaching is sanctioned by chapter 5 of Vatican II’s Constitution Lumen gentium, where it says (40): “The Lord Jesus, divine teacher and model of all perfection, preached holiness of life (of which he is the author and maker) to each and every one of his disciples without distinction: ‘You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ … It is therefore quite clear that all Christians in any state or walk of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the perfection of love, and by this holiness a more human manner of life is fostered also in earthly society”.
VIDEO COMMENTARY:
TOPIC: CAN YOU EVER LOVE YOUR ENEMY?
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus continues His Sermon on the Mount, just like yesterday. We are to love our enemies and pray for them. It is one of the most challenging passages in Scriptures. It is easy to love those who love you – your friends and relatives. Even members of a murder gang do the same. But to love your enemies goes against the grain of human reason and emotion.
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