Jesus said to his disciples: "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,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Source: https://dailygospel.org/M/AM/
Analysis
Today's passage is a reiteration and emphasis on yesterday's passage. The core message is still the same, that is to love your enemy, though while yesterday focuses on our treatment, this is on our general attitude towards them. As usual, Jesus first tells the old teaching, that is to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Then Jesus teaches the true way, that is to love your enemies and pray for them as well. While this seems insane and lunatic in the old days, it is actually much more common nowadays, perhaps because Christianity is the dominant religion. Nevertheless, we should analyze this passage.
The rest of the passage is more or less a logical justification for Jesus' argument. The first reason is being that God loves everyone indiscriminately, He gives rain to both the just and the unjust, and the sun rises on both the bad and the good. Of course, if God loves everyone including those who despise Them or loathe Them or even deny Their existence, why shouldn't we? The next argument compares the old teaching with other so called sinful people. Loving your neighbors, people of your own blood, people you like, that is not special, and everyone does it. Even the vilest of men would care for their blood, or their friends.
As such, we must love our enemies as well, it is only logical to do so. Loving people who are kind to us is not a challenge, as we are in a mutually symbiotic relationship with them. Jesus' message also gives us insight on the true meaning of love. When we love someone who are kind to us and loves us as well, chances are, we love them, that is we help them, protect them and so on for one sole purpose. That is to maintain their love for them, as such we actually love ourselves, and not them. But when we love our enemies and pray for them, what do we get? Nothing really, and that's the point. Love does not ask for rewards, it is unconditional. As such, whether we love our enemies or not tells a lot about ourselves. If we are unwilling, then we don't love anyone but ourselves. If we do, then that shows that are truly capable of true love. I believe that is all I can say, have a nice day and see you tomorrow.
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