Do not the pagans do the same?

SATURDAY 7 MARCH (Mt 5,43-48)

How can a Christian love with a universal love? First of all with perfect obedience to the Law of the Lord, which are the Commandments on which the Old Covenant is founded: ““I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that place of slavery. You shall not have other gods besides me. You shall not carve idols for yourselves in the shape of anything in the sky above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or worship them. For I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, inflicting punishment for their fathers’ wickedness on the children of those who hate me, down to the third and fourth generation; but bestowing mercy down to the thousandth generation, on the children of those who love me and keep my commandments. “You shall not take the name of the Lord, your God, in vain. For the Lord will not leave unpunished him who takes his name in vain. “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day. Six days you may labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord, your God. No work may be done then either by you, or your son or daughter, or your male or female slave, or your beast, or by the alien who lives with you. In six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the Lord has blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. “Honor your father and your mother, that you may have a long life in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you. “You shall not kill. “You shall not commit adultery. “You shall not steal. “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male or female slave, nor his ox or ass, nor anything else that belongs to him”” (Ex 20,1-17). Whoever leaves this Law even of a single venial transgression does not love with a universal love. He hurt someone, even if it was mild. Today these Commandments are no longer declared Law for man. There is no love. There is only sinful instinct and feeling. But this of the commandments is only the first love. It is the love of justice. It is the love that gives the other what is of the other. But God does not love us like that. He loves us by giving what is his. The Son is his. He gave him for our eternal redemption. The body of Christ is his. He gave it for our salvation, as a holocaust to redeem us from the captivity of sin and death. He made himself a victim of atonement for the sins of the world.

“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.

God did not give his Son for the righteous, he gave him for sinners, for the wicked, for us who were his enemies: “For Christ, while we were still helpless, yet died at the appointed time for the ungodly. Indeed, only with difficulty does one die for a just person, though perhaps for a good person one might even find courage to die. But God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. How much more then, since we are now justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath. Indeed, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more, once reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Not only that, but we also boast of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation” (Rm 5,6-11). If we are the body of Christ, we too must give our bodies to the Father in atonement for the salvation of every man. But if we give our body, can we keep our possessions for ourselves? All that we have must be given to the Father so that He can manifest his love for every man. We Christians are the sun and the rain that the Father will have to give to every man, calling him to conversion for the remission of sins.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints ensure that we never forget our Christian truth.