Reading of the Word of God

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you.
The child you shall bear will be holy.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Matthew 5,43-48

'You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much? And if you save your greetings for your brothers, are you doing anything exceptional? Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Look down, O Lord, on your servants.
Be it unto us according to your word.

Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia

Jesus is audacious in proposing his ideal. He says, "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." It is clearly impossible. However if we welcome his love, we are on the way to God's perfection. In a time when the logic of opposition and the search for the enemy reign; the exhortation to love our enemies seems completely shocking, but it is liberating. These words free us from the search of the enemy and of someone to oppose which have become a sort of only thinking. Jesus knows well that life is made also of difficult relationships in which the encounter with the other often degenerates in a clash; he knows that enmities among people are easy. In order to avoid these infernal chains, Jesus gives us an exhortation that no one else had ever dared to say: "Love your enemies!" Only thus can love truly prevail. The Gospel does not negate the complexities of life, but it does reverse the notion that conflict is the only, inevitable way we can regulate our relationships. Indeed, whoever may be our enemy today may return to be or become our friend tomorrow.