My Dear Friends,
As I write this column early in the week, our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is in the hospital in Rome with a respiratory infection. Every day at the Mass, we pray for the pope, but today we pray for his health and for a prompt recovery. During this Holy Year of jubilee, Pope Francis has called us to focus on the theological virtue of hope and to be pilgrims of hope. So many of our brothers and sisters feel lost, and maybe you feel lost too as you read this, but the gift of hope that Christ gives us, lets us see the divine possibilities of a life totally transformed by our Savior. Which is why the Holy Year is a time of conversion. Father David wrote about it in this space last week. This rejection of sin and embrace of hope is transformational and life altering especially when you look at the challenge that Christ gives us in today’s gospel: “love your enemies.” Pope Francis has spoken often on this command from our Lord, so I cede the rest of my column to the Vicar of Christ:
This Sunday’s Gospel passage (cf. Lk 6:27-38) concerns a central point that characterizes Christian life: love for enemies. Jesus’ words are clear: “I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you” (vv. 27-38). And this is not optional, it is a command. It is not for everyone, but for the disciples, whom Jesus calls “you that hear”. He is well aware that loving enemies exceeds our possibilities, but this is why he became man: not to leave us as we are, but to transform us into men and women capable of a greater love, that of his Father and ours. This is the love that Jesus gives to those who ‘hear him’. Thus it becomes possible! With him, thanks to his love, to his Spirit, we are able to love even those who do not love us, even those who do us harm.
In this way, Jesus wants God’s love to triumph over hatred and rancor in every heart. The logic of love, which culminates in Christ’s Cross, is a Christian’s badge and induces us to meet everyone with the heart of brothers and sisters. But how is it possible to overcome human instinct and the worldly law of retaliation? Jesus provides the answer in the same Gospel passage: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (v. 36). Those who hear Jesus, who make an effort to follow him even at a cost, become children of God, and begin to truly resemble the Father who is in heaven. We become capable of things we never thought we could say or do, and of which we would have been rather ashamed, but which now give us joy and peace instead. We no longer need to be violent, with words and gestures: we discover that we are capable of tenderness and goodness; and we sense that all of this comes not from ourselves but from him! And thus we do not brag about it but are grateful for it.
There is nothing greater and more fruitful than love: it bestows all dignity to the person, while, on the contrary, hatred and vengeance decrease it, marring the beauty of the creature made in God’s image…
May the Virgin Mary help us to let our heart be touched by this holy word of Jesus, burning like fire, that it may transform us and make us able to do good without reciprocation, doing good without reciprocation, witnessing everywhere to the victory of love. (Angelus 2/24/19)
Lord Jesus, comfort our Holy Father in his illness and restore him to health. Amen.
God bless you all,
