Gospel: Matthew 5: 43-48
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you."
Come we now to the most difficult of all commandments Jesus gives us. We found it easy to heed the command of Joshua to commit genocide on enemies, but now the new Joshua issues an entirely contradictory command: do not harm your enemy but instead love them. Suffer persecution from them and do not retaliate in any way. Instead, pray for those who persecute you, pray for those you regard as your enemy.
Jesus lived this throughout his entire life. He provides healing for everyone who comes to him, foreigner as well as citizen, and he never refused to help anyone ever. He delivers people from all their demons, touching even the most unclean person. He provides food to huge crowds, never asking if they were "deserving poor" or some other modern category of exclusion. He ate meals with sinners, with Pharisees, with his betrayer, his denier, his doubter, and all those who would abandon him.
And what of us? We who claim the mantle of Christian are so ready to malign another, to expel others from our midst while claiming all are welcome. We are too busy bombing and executing and deporting others that we have no time to pray for anyone but ourselves. Today is a day for making an attempt to live as Jesus did, to strive to heed this command, to pray and to love our enemies.
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