Gospel (Mt 5,43-48) - At that time, Jesus said to his disciples: «You have heard that it was said: “You will love your neighbor” and you will hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven; he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don't publicans do this too? And if you only greet your brothers, what are you doing that is extraordinary? Don't pagans do this too? You, therefore, be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The opposition conversation continues. Jesus, after reminding his disciples of the common sentiment of the time: "You will love your neighbor and hate your enemy", proposes his Gospel: "But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you". Jesus proposes love, the first of the commandments, as the heart of the life of the disciple and of the Church. The short words of this Gospel passage demonstrate well what the true wisdom of life is. It is certainly not that of letting oneself be guided by hatred and revenge. Unfortunately, these feelings and attitudes, always present in every man, never cease to make their strength felt. And unfortunately also their semblance of normality. It's easy to think that it's normal to defend yourself from those who want to harm you. However, Jesus asks us to go deeper into the hearts of men and of life itself. He knows well that evil cannot be defeated by caressing it and entering its territory. He must be eradicated at the root. For this reason, in a completely paradoxical but decisive way, he ends up asking his disciples to love even their enemies. It is a statement that scandalizes the current mentality. It is indeed shocking. And we also wonder if it is really possible. Isn't this the usual abstract and unachievable utopia? Shouldn't what the disciples said in Capernaum when faced with Jesus' assertion that he was the bread of life be applied to this page: "This word is hard"? These words - although shocking - he himself put into practice first, when from the top of the cross he prayed for his executioners. And how many martyrs, starting from Stephen, have lived with the same spirit! Of course, a love like this does not come from men and much less does it flow naturally from our hearts: it comes from above, from God who makes the sun rise on the just and the unjust, without differences. None of us deserve to be loved for our own merits, very few, if any. The Lord gives us his love freely, without us deserving it. It is evident that the disciples must live in this horizon of love. There must therefore be a paradoxical dimension in the life of Christians: it is the paradox of a love that comes from heaven but which transforms the earth. Otherwise: “if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?”. We become salt without flavor and light without splendor. Jesus is bold in the ideal he proposes. He still says: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. This is patently impossible. And yet if we welcome his love we are on the path to the very perfection of God. In a time in which the logic of opposition and the search for the enemy dominates, the exhortation to love our enemies appears completely shocking, but it is liberating . This word frees us from the search for the enemy and for someone to oppose, which has become a sort of unique thought. Jesus knows well that life is also made up of difficult relationships in which the encounter with the other often degenerates into a clash; he knows that enmities between men are easy. But precisely to defeat this infernal chain, Jesus proposes an exhortation that no one has ever dared to pronounce: "Love your enemies!". Only in this way does love truly win. The Gospel does not deny the complexity of life, if anything it denies that the logic of conflict is the only one that regulates relationships and above all that it is inevitable. Also because someone who is an enemy today can go back to being or becoming a friend.