23 FEBRUARY (Mt 5, 43-48)

The Holy Scripture never taught hatred for the enemy. This teaching came from the tradition of men, not surely from the Word of the Lord. God has always called for a love for all, without any distinction and difference: a universal love.

Rejoice not when your enemy falls, and when he stumbles, let not your heart exult, Lest the LORD see it, be displeased with you, and withdraw his wrath from your enemy. Be not provoked with evildoers, nor envious of the wicked; For the evil man has no future, the lamp of the wicked will be put out.(Pr 24,17-20). If your enemy be hungry, give him food to eat, if he be thirsty, give him to drink; For live coals you will heap on his head, and the Lord will vindicate you. (Pr 25,21-22). “When you come upon your enemy’s ox or ass going astray, see to it that it is returned to him. When you notice the ass of one who hates you lying prostrate under its burden, by no means desert him; help him, rather, to raise it up. (Ex 23,4-5). Had I rejoiced at the destruction of my enemy or exulted when evil fell upon him, Even though I had not suffered my mouth to sin by uttering a curse against his life – Had not the men of my tent exclaimed, “Who has not been fed with his meat!” Because no stranger lodged in the street, but I opened my door to wayfarers. (Job 31,29-32). Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth! a man of strife and contention to all the land! I neither borrow nor lend, yet all curse me. Tell me, Lord, have I not served you for their good? Have I not interceded with you in the time of misfortune and anguish? (Jer 15,10-11).

We reach the culmination of this revelation in the Book of Wisdom.

Indeed, before you the whole universe is as a grain from a balance, or a drop of morning dew come down upon the earth. But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook the sins of men that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved, had it not been called forth by you? But you spare all things, because they are yours, O Lord and lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things! Therefore you rebuke offenders little by little, warn them, and remind them of the sins they are committing, that they may abandon their wickedness and believe in you, O Lord! For truly, the ancient inhabitants of your holy land, whom you hated for deeds most odious – Works of witchcraft and impious sacrifices; a cannibal feast of human flesh and of blood, from the midst of. . . – These merciless murderers of children, and parents who took with their own hands defenseless lives, You willed to destroy by the hands of our fathers, that the land that is dearest of all to you might receive a worthy colony of God’s children. But even these, as they were men, you spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army that they might exterminate them by degrees. Not that you were without power to have the wicked vanquished in battle by the just, or wiped out at once by terrible beasts or by one decisive word; But condemning them bit by bit, you gave them space for repentance. You were not unaware that their race was wicked and their malice ingrained, And that their dispositions would never change; for they were a race accursed from the beginning. Neither out of fear for anyone did you grant amnesty for their sins. (Wis 11,22-12,11).

Jesus gives the ancient revelation a divine splendour. If before there was any doubt, now there is a full, shining light. Jesus Christ dies for the ungodly and for sinners. The Christian is the one who must love every man with a love of true salvation, redemption and justification. The Christian is the gift that the Father in heaven, today and always, wants to give for the salvation of the world. The Christian must consume himself in love.

“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.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints make us perfect in love.