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(RV) Knowing how to pray «for those who wish us harm» will make our enemies better and will make us, ourselves, more «children of the Father». This reflection was central to Pope Francis' homily during the morning Mass celebrated this Tuesday morning, 14 June 2016, at the Casa Santa Marta.
Francis addressed the passage of the Gospel in which Jesus urges the disciples to strive toward the perfection of God, «who makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good». «There are two irreconcilable ways of hearing the Word of God, the Pope explained: an arid list of duties and prohibitions, or the invitation to love the Father and one's brothers with all one's heart, reaching the culminating point: praying for one's own adversary».
This is the dialectic of the confrontation between the doctors of the law and Jesus, between the Law presented in a schematic mode to the Hebrew people by its leaders and the «fullness» of that same Law which Christ affirms he has come to bring. Pope Francis returned to a point of conviction he had already expressed several times. When Jesus began his preaching, held hostage by his adversaries, «the explanation of the law at that time was in crisis», the Pope observed.
«It was too theoretical an explanation, casuistic: let us say it was a law in which there was not the very heart of the Law, which is the love of God that he has given to us. So the Lord repeats what was in the Old Testament: what is the greatest commandment? To love God, with all one's heart, with all one's strength, with all one's soul, and one's neighbour as oneself. And in the explanation of the Doctors of the Law this was not so much at the centre. At the centre were the cases: but may we do this? To what point may we do this? And if we cannot? The casuistry proper to the Law. And Jesus takes this and recovers the true meaning of the Law in order to bring it to its fullness.»
The Pope highlighted how Jesus offered «so many examples» to show the commandments in a new light. «Do not kill», he affirmed, can also mean not insulting a brother, and he highlighted how much love is «more generous than the doctors of the Law, in the cloak added as a gift for the one who had asked for a garment, and the two kilometres walked with the one who had asked to be accompanied for one kilometre».
«It is a work that is not only a work for the fulfilment of the Law, but is a work of healing of the heart. In this explanation that Jesus gives of his commandments, in the Gospel of Matthew especially, there is a path of healing: a heart wounded by original sin — all of us have a heart wounded by sin, all of us — must take this path of healing and be healed so as to resemble the Father, who is perfect: "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect". A path of healing so as to be children like the Father.»
«This is the perfection that Jesus indicates, and the one contained in the day's passage from the Gospel of Matthew, Francis specified: "You have heard that it was said: you shall love your neighbour, and you shall hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"». «This is the last step» of that path, the Pope affirmed, the most difficult. Francis recalled that as a child, thinking of one of the great dictators of the time, he had often prayed that God would soon reserve hell for him. «On the contrary, he concluded, God asks for an examination of conscience».
«May the Lord give us the grace, only this: to pray for our enemies, to pray for those who wish us harm, who do not wish us well; to pray for those who do us harm, who persecute us. And each one of us knows the name and surname: I pray for this one, this one, this one… I assure you that this prayer will do two things: it will make him better, because prayer is powerful, and it will make us more children of the Father», the Holy Father concluded.
Source: news.va
