SERMON/HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT 24TH FEBRUARY 2024

SERMON/HOMILY FOR SATURDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT 24TH FEBRUARY 2024

Deut.26:16-19; Ps.119; Matt.5:43-48

What loving the enemy entails!

Today, Jesus asked that we love our enemies. If you have never been deeply wronged especially by someone you trusted so much, you may not understand how difficult Jesus’ recommendation is. For one thing, it takes a lot for one to act contrary to nature. The natural thing to do was what Jesus first mentioned, namely: to love our friends and hate our enemies. Why will someone bring me pain and I react with love towards the person? Does loving my enemies mean that I should overlook what they did to me, keep my calm and smile at them still? Will loving my enemies not give them more moral to harm me or others in the future? If loving my enemies makes them to persist in their evil, am I not invariably responsible for their misdeeds since I never confronted them? Is silence no longer a way of sharing in the sins of others? The summary question is: what does it really mean to love ones enemies?

Jesus taught us how to love our enemies by forgiving his executioners. But his forgiveness did not spare them his confrontation for doing what was wrong. All through his public ministry, he continued to confront the hypocrisy of the Scribes and the Pharisees; he continued to speak truth to power; he continued to do good even when he will be hated for it. Do we then say that he never loved the Scribes and the Pharisees that constantly antagonized him? Surely, he loved them. Beloved, we must extend the definition of love to also mean correcting wrong doings in the most appropriate manner. Loving enemies does not accommodate the persistence of evil. If you forgive an offender in a manner that gives him moral to keep offending you or others, then you have not forgiven in the real sense of the word. Forgiveness is never a truncation of justice. Forgiveness must teach the offender how to do things rightly.

Correcting is different from condemning or revenging. Jesus is asking us not to do the latter but the former. There is a thin line between correcting and revenging. We are emotional beings; in a bid to correct someone, you may loose it and be actually revenging. To avoid this pitfall, it is recommended that we do not act when our emotions are high. The first step towards loving ones enemies is forgiving the person. You cannot correct who you have not forgiven. Forgiveness does not mean that you won’t learn your lessons and take precaution but that you will not consciously harm the person nor fail to help the person when you can.

However, _anyhow we talk dis matter reach, to love enemy still hard. Las las, na to pray make God give us the grace to dey perfect like himself. E no easy but e no also dey impossible. Na small small.