Habits of love

Saturday of the First Week of Lent
Gospel: Matthew 5:43-48
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/031525.cfm

A theme that keeps coming up during the gospels this lent is how Jesus is calling us to imitate God. In today’s gospel, Jesus emphasized that God treats all equally. The sun shines and the rain falls equally on the bad and the good and the just and the unjust. Jesus says that this fair and equal treatment of others is perfection.

The concept of vengeance has no place. Neither does only showing kindness to those who have not crossed you. Jesus calls us to love our enemies and want what is best for them. Sin and mistreatment of others is a sickness that we must cure ourselves from and assist others with as well. We don’t love our enemies because of their scorn and mistreatment, we love them because we know that they have the divine spark within them needing to be activated and habitualized. At our core, we are all created in the image and likeness of God.

God wants all of us in God’s kingdom. That means all of us; even our enemies and those who have sinned against us. Everyone has the opportunity for reconciliation. We are all more than our actions in one moment, but our actions can be symptoms of our present state. The pattern and habits shown by our actions reflect what and who we are at our core. We all have the divine spark and we all have the ability to shy away from it. We always have the capacity to change for the good. God is in us always wanting to come alive and transform us for the better. In loving our enemies, we recognize that aptitude in others as we recognize it in ourselves as well. God is never done with us. We must work for, pray for, and hope for the salvation of all as Jesus has shown us.