Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to 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.”
You have heard
1) Hate. I honestly believe that people go through a process, and hating someone is the absolute last step you take. It starts with pain. If you don’t process that pain internally, it turns into anguish. If anguish is left unresolved, it turns into anger. Left unchecked, it drives you to revenge, then to resentment, and finally, you fall into hatred. But that final stage only happens because you failed to do the inner work earlier. So, hating someone isn’t actually a result of what another person has done to you; it’s a result of your own failure to process how their actions affected you.
2) Pray for them. I’ve experienced firsthand what it’s like to know someone is slandering you. A few years ago, my bishop even called me in about a situation I wasn’t even aware of. He told me, ‘You know, when you’re in the public eye, there are always going to be people who want to tear you down.’ That moment helped me understand that criticism and slander are often part of being visible and the more exposed you are, the more backlash you’ll face. Even so, the best response is not retaliation but prayer, asking God to give those people peace. Because when people are constantly looking for ways to attack you, it says a lot more about them than it does about you.
3) Perfect. In the Hebrew sense, being ‘perfect’ doesn’t mean never failing. It means being willing to learn, to grow through mistakes, and to be shaped even by sorrow. Perfection isn’t about having it all together and never falling. In Christianity, perfection means learning from what you’ve done wrong and choosing not to repeat it. We’ve all fallen, but not all of us have risen again. We’ve all made mistakes, but not all of us have learned from them. We’ve all been unfaithful or disloyal in one way or another, but not all of us have put a stop to it. We all have sins, but not all of us are willing to acknowledge it honestly.
Remember that something good is on the way.
God bless you and protect you in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
