May the Lord bless you with peace and health in the Holy Spirit.
It is 12th March 2022.
We reflect on Deuteronomy 26:16-19 and Matthew 5:43-48
God’s love is the inscription and description of perfect love. God has no difficulty in loving us even when God knows we do not deserve to be loved by God. God does not deny love to anyone even to the worst sinner. God promises holiness to all who listen. It is mere listening to the voice of the Lord alone, but it is to hear the cry of the poor and those who made us feel broken, bruised and bashed.
Unless we look up to the ideal of loving God, we do not even live up to the reality of loving one another. Love is decoded when it is voluntary and vulnerable. Love is most fragile yet agile always.
Every human person has a side we can still love. It is true and difficult for anyone to love people who hate us, ill-treat us, and abuse us. Jesus challenges us to love those people who are mean to us. We all need to explore what we can love in those people. Depriving love to someone is not punishment we impose on others but a sanction we pronounce on ourselves.
The perfection of love lingers on the composition of listening. Emulating God’s love is the perfect love we all can aspire for.
The time has come for all of us to raise the quality of love. It all depends on the way we love the most difficult and challenging people in our life. The quality and goodness of humanity shine bright when it can withstand the opposition, resistance and refusal to love.
Listening is harder than living. To listen to the cry of the vulnerable and broken is the courage of loving.
Can we love our enemies? It is hard and challenging but not impossible. Loving our enemies is not a virtue but it is a determined and vexing venture to be perfect. Giving another million chances to those who refuse to love and accept as we are the reachable submit of perfect love. Perfection of love is possible when we do not distinguish, judge unfairly, and are indifferent to others. Perfection is the reflection of our inner courage to love those who refuse to love and that is called holiness.
Are we carrying our enemies in our minds and hearts always? It is indeed challenging to love those who refuse to love us. Life is a constant choice between deserving and denying. “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt.5:48). Perfection is synonymous with mercy.
The best renewal we all could go after during Lent is to listen when others have a hard of hearing emotionally. May God grant us the courage to love others as they are as God love us as we are. God bless you.