Daily Gospel Reflection

The People You Don’t Like

Welcome back to Radical and Relevant. Today's Gospel is about loving your enemies. Isabelle was asking me about this one just last weekend. It comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 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. And He makes His Son 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? 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."

So what jumps out at you? I was having this conversation with Isabelle the other day, so I'm going to go with that because she came into my office and she sits down in this comfy chair and wraps her legs up under her. I don't know how they do that, but that's what they do. And she's like, "So, Dad," and this is always-- "So, Dad," is always the beginning of something interesting. And she's talking about a situation and, do I really have to love this person at school?, and this person at school is obnoxious, and this person at school is causing trouble, and this person at school is-- all these things, and do I really have to love this person? I said, "Well, honey, you don't have to do anything. That's free will." "Yeah, Dad, but you know what I mean. I mean, Jesus," I said, "Well, that's a broad topic. What do you mean, Jesus?" "Well, Jesus says, "Love your enemies, and do we really have to love everyone?" I said, "Yeah, but you don't have to like them." She's like, "What do you mean?" I said, "Well, you don't have to like everybody. There's some people you're not going to like. That's okay. You don't have to like everybody. You don't have to be friends with everybody." Jesus didn't say you have to like everybody. He didn't say you have to be friends with everybody. He said, "You have to love everybody." Well, she's like, "Well, how is that even possible if I don't like somebody and I don't want to be friends with somebody? How am I going to love somebody?"

Well, that's because we have a fundamental misunderstanding of what love is in our society. She's like, "All right, Dad, well, what is love?" Well, we've talked about it before. Love is to will good for the other, okay? Love is to will good for the other. Think about the worst person on the planet today. Think about the people doing all sorts of atrocities. You can love them because you can will good for them. You can will good for them by desiring and praying for them to come into virtue, to come into character, to come into the right path, to come into relationship with God. So love is not what we see in the movies, and love is not what we see on TV shows. Love is the will, the good of the other, and we can and we should love people we don't like, and we can and we should love people, even if we don't want to be friends with them. And we can and we should love everyone, but that doesn't mean we need to like them. Have a great day. Remember, don't just be yourself. Be the very best version of yourself, all that God created you to be.