Tuesday of Week 11 in Ordinary Time
1 Kgs 21:17-29
Mt 5:43-48
“…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Easier said than done, right? How often we get hurt and disappointed by people who say or do things which hurt us, or do not live up to our expectations and yet, we are supposed to love them and pray for them?
And if that’s not enough, the Lord throws us another challenge — be perfect just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.
Today’s gospel seems to ask the impossible of us. But it is indeed a call to live extraordinarily; a call to be perfect, despite our own imperfections.
And we have Jesus as our perfect example of loving our enemies when He uttered on the cross: “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.”
He prayed for His enemies. And that, in my opinion is what we are challenged to do today. To pray for our enemies — people who do not agree with us, those who have hurt us. To pray for them is to surrender them to our Lord, and to surrender ourselves and our wills to His divine will.
In that respect, we open our hearts to be shaped and formed by God’s grace day by day, to truly love our enemies just as God loves us, in spite of our own sinfulness.
And before we know it, we will be transformed to be perfect just as our Heavenly Father is perfect.
(Today’s OXYGEN by Nicholas Lee)
Prayer: We pray for the grace to be open to loving our enemies the way God loves us — freely, totally, unconditionally.
Thanksgiving: Thank you Jesus, for loving me in spite of my imperfections.
OXYGEN 
Leave a comment