Jesus said to his disciples: “To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,
pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not
withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one
who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have
them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good
to you, what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those
from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend
to sinners, and get back the same amount. But rather, love your enemies and do
good to them, and lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great
and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the
ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.
“Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop
condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give and gifts will be given to you; a good measure, packed together, shaken
down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which
you measure will in return be measured out to you.”
+ + + + + + +
Reflection:
How do you love?
All of us will agree that we can easily love those
who give us love in return. But are we willing to love those who’ve hurt us or
those who continue on hurting us? Mother Teresa once said: “If you love until
it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” A wife or a husband who
truly love will continue to love his/her spouse notwithstanding the betrayal/s.
Many marriages fail because we put limits on how we
give love. For example, if a wife discovers that her husband is playing around
with fire. The reaction of the wife is perhaps to take revenge and play with
fire also and not to anymore love her philandering husband. But what will
happen if our attitude is like that? There would be many broken marriages,
there would be many suffering children simply because we put limits on how we
give our love.
Jesus in our gospel is advising us to change this
mindset of reactive love. And to bring our understanding of love to a much
higher level. Perhaps, to the level of God’s love for us. But are we
capable of raising to a higher level our love and on how we give love?
If we truly love Jesus we would be able to forgive
and once again love a spouse who betrayed us. We would be able to love our
siblings/relatives who’ve hurt us and who don’t want to listen to our well-meaning
advice/s. We would be able to love a friend who betrayed our trust.
Jesus tells us in the gospel: For if you love
those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who
love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that
to you? Even sinners do the same (Luke 6:32-33). - Marino J. Dasmarinas
No comments:
Post a Comment