Pope: Praying for our enemies is the "perfection" Jesus spoke of

"This prayer will do two things: It will make [your enemy] improve, because prayer is powerful, and will make us more children of the Father". Jesus offers "many examples" to show the commandments in a new light. "Thou shalt not kill", he says, can also mean not to insult a brother and on and on up to emphasize that love is "more generous than the letter of the Law".

 

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - Praying "for those who wish us ill," according to the words of Jesus, will improve our enemies and make us "children of the Father", said Pope Francis at Mass this morning in Casa Santa Marta, inspired by the Gospel passage in which Jesus exhorts his disciples to strive for the perfection of God, "who makes His sun rise on those who are evil and those who are good."

The Pope noted that there are two irreconcilable ways of understanding the Word of God, that Jesus indicates when he says, "You have heard that it was said, but I tell you." Either the dry list of duties and prohibitions or an invitation to love the Father and our brothers with all our heart, to the point of praying for one's adversaries. It is the dialectic of confrontation between the teachers of the law and Jesus, between the law proposed in a schematic way to the Jewish people by their leaders, and the "fullness" of that same law which Christ affirmed he came to bring.

Francis noted that when Jesus began his preaching, opposed by his adversaries, "the explanation of the Law at that time was in crisis." "The explanation was too theoretical, casuistry... Let's say that it was a law deprived of the very heart of the law, which is the love of God, which He has given to us. Therefore the Lord repeated what was in the Old Testament: what is the greatest commandment? To love God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your soul, and your neighbor as yourself. And this was not at the center of the explanation of the doctors of the Law. They focused on cases: can you do this? How far can you do this? And if you cannot? ... The casuistry of their own law. And he takes this and takes the true meaning of the Law to fulfill it”.

Jesus offers "many examples" to show the commandments in a new light. "Thou shalt not kill", he says, can also mean not to insult a brother and on and on up to emphasize that love is "more generous than the letter of the Law", [it is in ] the cloak offered as a gift to those who had asked to be clothed and in two kilometers travelled alongside those who had asked to be accompanied for one. "It 'a job that is not just a job done to fulfill the Law, but to heal the heart. In this explanation that Jesus gives of the Commandments - in the Gospel of Matthew in particular - is a journey of healing: a heart wounded by original sin - we all have a heart wounded by sin, all - we must take this path of and heal the in order to resemble the Father, who is perfect: 'Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect'. A healing path to be children like the Father. "

And the perfection that Jesus speaks of  is the one contained in today’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew: "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor' and hate your enemy. But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you ". "It is the last step" on this road, the most difficult. Francis said that as a boy, thinking of one of the great dictators of the time, it was customary to pray that God would send them to hell.

Instead, he concludes, God asks us to examine our conscience. "May the Lord give us the grace, only this: To pray for our enemies, pray for those who wish us ill, who do not wish us well. Pray for those who hurt us, who persecute us. And everyone knows the name and surname: pray for them, ... I assure you that this prayer will do two things: it will improve [our adversaries], because the prayer is powerful, and it will make us more children of the Father ".

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