Daily Gospel Reflection – Saturday of the First Week of Lent
March 4, 2023
Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Gospel: Mt 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 and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, today, in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord commands us to love our enemies.
What is the test of love? Jesus couldn’t be clearer in the discourse he delivers the night before he died: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” If love is willing the good of the other as other, this has to be the fullest expression, the final word, of love.
There is another way to test love: the love of enemies, those who cannot or will not pay you back. This also takes place in the cross of Jesus. Jews, Romans, Pharisees, Sadducees, his own disciples—everyone betrays him, runs from him, denies him, actively arranges for his death. And yet these are the very people that he loves, the very people for whom he gives his life.
The final test is what Jesus does when he returns from the dead. To the very people that contributed to his demise he says, “Shalom.” This is how we are loved; this is how we must love. Everything else is commentary.
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