Christian Perfection is Loving Your Enemies.

Homily for Saturday 16^th March 2019

_“… So that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” *(Matthew 5:45)*_

In anything you do, never be content with being average. Always strive to be the best. The moment you stop striving to be better, you stop growing and this means you start dying. Jesus tells us today to aim for perfection because the God who created us is perfect and has wired into us a desire for perfection.

In today’s first reading, we hear the voice of Moses making us understand that worshipping God is a covenant agreement. If we do our part, God will do his part by taking us as His own.

Moses says, “you have declared this day to walk in His ways, to keep His status and ordinances, to obey His voice and the Lord has declared that you are a people of His own possession, that He will set you high above all nations, you shall be a people holy to the Lord.”

Come to think of it, the summary of all the commandments of God is to Love our neighbours but the question is: Who is a neighbour? Is it simply the one who is friendly to you, speaks your language, lives close to your house or shares things with you? Definitely Not.

Your neighbour also includes the one who wants to destroy you, the one you are not supposed to talk to (just as Samaritans had no business with Jews), it includes the one who hates you, the one who is eagerly waiting to hear bad news from you, the one who has vowed to make life difficult for you and the one who never responds to your greeting.

Honestly, it is not easy to love people who only respond to us with hatred. But today, Jesus tells us that loving our enemies is the ultimate test of perfection in Christian spirituality. If we only love those who love us in return, then we are simply average Christians, ordinary churchgoers, we are no different from non-believers.

To be perfect is to have a heart so fresh and clean that it gives no room for hatred; a heart so sweet that it is never bitter at anyone; a heart so holy that it never contemplates evil against anyone. This is how God created us, this is how we were as kids. This is why Jesus says unless we become like children, we cannot enter heaven.

Let us Pray: Lord Jesus, teach me to love all my neighbours as myself. Amen.

Be Happy. Live Positive. Have Faith. It is well with you. God bless you. (Saturday of the 1^st Week of Lent. Bible Study: Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Psalm 119 and Matthew 5:43-48).