GOSPEL POWER l JUNE 14, 2022 

TUESDAY of 11th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel: Mt 5:43-48 

Jesus said to his disciples, 43“You have heard that it was said, ‘You  shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44But I say to you,  Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that  you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun  rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and  on the unrighteous. 46For if you love those who love you, what reward  do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47And if you  greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than  others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48Be perfect, therefore,  as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

When we love our neighbor but hate our enemy, we  simply align ourselves with the expectations of the  world. There is nothing new in that, and so we do not  make any difference. The sphere of our loving remains small and  cramped and governed by sympathies and antipathies. We create  boundaries and label people according to who is in and who is out of those boundaries. The same old stories of division, segregation,  and discrimination are retold in the quality of our relationships. No  growth… no transformation. In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites us to  expand the sphere of our loving, for the more we do so, the more we  become in touch with our real identity as children of the heavenly  Father who includes everyone in the boundless sphere of his loving.

 Lord Jesus, it is your death that empowers us to fulfill this seemingly  impossible mandate. Amen.