Today's Gospel

How to Love Your Enemies

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we explore the genius of Catholicism, the genius of the gospel, the genius of Jesus in the Gospels. Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew chapter 5:43-48. "You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, 'Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. You therefore be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.'" What is it that jumps out at you today? Jesus is very clearly saying, "You've got to do more." I think we live in a culture that wants to reduce Christianity sometimes to be nice. And it's much more than that. And it's about going way above and going way beyond. And Jesus says, "Hey, the people of the world even do these things. You've got to do more. You've got to do better." And the call of the gospel is a constant invitation to do more, to be more, to love more, and to allow God to transform us even through some of these very, very difficult situations.

And Jesus is setting the par pretty high here. He says, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." That's difficult. I was talking to the kids about this one recently. And one of the kids said, "Dad, does God really expect you to love your enemies?" That's a great question, right? It's a question we all have. It's a question we should all consider. It's a question we shouldn't avoid. And with the little minds, the kids' little minds, right? They're like, "Oh, how can I love this person?" Because they did this or they do that or whatever. So much of these things is found in the definitions. And what does it mean to love? Does it mean to like a person? No, actually, it doesn't. You can love a person and not like a person. And then I see the kids that are trying to get their heads around that. What do you mean, dad? What does it mean to love? To love is to will the good of the other. To love is to will the good of the other. To love is to want good for the other person. And we can all do that. We can do that for everyone. Even the people who have most egregiously offended us, even the people who have most egregiously abandoned their humanity in so many ways, we can will good things for them. We can desire good things for them. And it doesn't mean we need to like them. You're not going to like everyone. You're going to like some people. You're not going to like some people. That's life. But are we called to love everyone? Are we called to love even our enemies? Yeah, we absolutely are. And that is the radical nature of the gospel. We come together each day. What do we call it? Radical and relevant. Is it radical? Absolutely. Is it relevant? Yes. Sometimes in a way that is a little too close to our hearts. Have a great day, and remember, be bold, be Catholic. Busy is not your friend. Only a toxic friend leaves you feeling anxious, overwhelmed, discouraged, exhausted, stressed, inadequate, and resentful. It's time to take our lives back from the tyrant busy. That's from my new book, Slowing Down to the Speed of Joy. If you haven't had a chance to read it yet, encourage you to pick up a copy. It's about probably one of the biggest struggles in my life, and that is to escape the insanity of busyness and the insanity of the urgent, and to become a lot more intentional about what I'm doing in my days and my weeks, what I feel God is calling me to do in my days and my weeks. It was fun writing. It was hard to write. I think it reveals a lot of my struggles spiritually. And I was sort of put enough writing the book because it's not fun to write about those struggles. But then I realized, well, if I wait, I'd just probably never write this book. And I felt like it was a book that I needed to write. Back cover, they put a quote from the book. It says, "Joy erupts within us, and we allow an experience to touch the very depths of our soul." Think about that joy erupts within us when we allow an experience to touch the very depths of our soul. What kind of experience that could be many things. That could be having a meal with your friends and family. That could be going for a walk. It could be going to mass. It could be so many things. But joy erupts within us when we allow an experience to touch the very depths of our soul. When's the last time you allowed an experience to touch the very depths of your soul? And what I realized was it wasn't happening, and it wasn't happening because you can't rush that. That can't be rushed. In order to allow experiences to touch the very depths of our soul, we do have to slow down to the speed of joy.