Sunday, February 23, 2020 — Seventh Sunday of ordinary time — Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 5, 38-48 — Whoever keeps the words of Christ, the love of God comes to perfection in him.

Jesus teaches to his disciples not to retaliate against wickedness as the law of the day prescribed. There is no need for us Christians to take revenge for the wrongs that are done to us. In our present context, we can translate Jesus' words: "Respect those who defile you, those who persecute you and those who quarrel with you, and reward those who take your possessions from you".

Each day, we can act in such a way. It is difficult to put into practice this teaching of Christ, it goes completely against our social justice. We can even affirm In some respects, it can even be argued that this favours the wrongdoers. But it is true that the thought of God goes far beyond the thought of man: the righteous in the eyes of man is not necessarily righteous in the eyes of God.

The teaching of Jesus is quite different "Love your enemies" i-e love those who think differently, those who harmed us. In addition to that,we stil have to pray for them. It is Jesus Himself who gives the example. When Judah delivered Him, he treated him like a friend, the same for those who killed Him, he asked forgiveness and prayed for them: "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing".

Our God is Our God is thus God of love, He does not abhor the sinner but sin. His goal is that the sinner should guard himself from sin and not eliminate the sinner who is nevertheless in his image. The love that God feel for us is perfect, without duplicity or reservation. It was this love that he want us to live and dispense around us to tear down the walls of strife and hatred.