Leave-taking of Pentecost; the Holy Apostle Carpus, One of the Seventy Disciples
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Romans 1:7-12; Matthew 5:42-48
Glory to Jesus Christ! Glory forever!
One famous analogy for sin is rebellion – by disobeying God’s commandment, Adam and Eve rebelled against him. If we carry this analogy a step further, we end up with a situation in which humanity is at war with God. In other words, we have become God’s enemies. That fact – the realization that we are, through our sins, enemies of God – sheds a profound light on today’s gospel; as we know, God did not treat us as enemies, but took on our humanity, suffered all the consequences of our sins without ever sinning himself, and freed us from the death by his death and resurrection. It’s in this light that we should try to love our enemies – the people in our lives who, even though we’d never consciously count them as enemies (after all, they are our friends, coworkers, children, husbands, and wives), we are tempted to treat as ‘hostile parties’. He loved us (and them) so much that he died for us; he loves them (and us) so much that he shares his blessings equally with all (the sun and the rain are the two examples of today’s gospel). God is perfect, and he loves perfectly and abundantly, not only loving those who loved him without fail (the angels) but those whose loved had grown cold through rebellion (humans). And God calls us to see every ‘hostile party’ not as a rebel but as someone in need of love. Let our forgiveness be a sign that leads others to him.