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 and sisters only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5: 44-48

Here are the complete readings for Saturday, March 15, 2025

(“Moses and the Fire of Sinai” by Darius Gilmont)

When I read this passage from Matthew, in the same chapter as the Beatitudes, I experienced the discomfort of recognizing that God does not operate on a quid pro quo basis. If I do good to others, and pray to God, should I then expect material prosperity as result? Jesus assures us that this is irrelevant in a relationship with God. God gives the sun and the rain to people who love and to people who hate. What is the reward is the relationship itself, not simply in some far off future, but here and now. To make the relationship more challenging and more rewarding, God asks us to provide that sunshine and nourishing rain to those who are indifferent to our feelings or who have hurt us. If we pray for those who persecute us, at the very least we can recognize that these persons share a most important quality with us-a shared humanity. There was once a wise teacher at my school who told the young teachers to pray for the names in their gradebook each day. He said, as much as these young people could sometimes be rude and try his patience, they would become more than names and numbers when he reminded himself through prayer how they reveal God’s image and likeness.

You are called then by your Founder
to enter into a true mutual sharing
with your brothers and sisters.
This sharing will demand of you
an opening and a giving of yourself to them
at many levels,
and a ready acceptance of each of them
in all their sinful and graced humanity. – The Fundamental Principles of the Xaverian Brothers

Loving God, you call us to renew your covenant with us each day. Help us to act as Jesus would towards those we would rather not encounter. May we recognize your light in them just as we draw strength from the warmth we find in our loved ones. Remind us that our efforts may not result in measurable success, and that what matters is that we have shared our belief that they matter.

Amen