Jesus said to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' 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.
Matthew 5:43-45
Many people ask why does God raise his sun on the good and the bad alike? Why does he not get angry together with us at godless, lying, sinful, bad people? We don't need to ask God this question, because the answer is already in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel 33:11 'I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!"
God doesn't want to destroy the sinner, see Saul, he has initiated a dialogue with him, but he wants to have a dialogue with us as well! Our God wants us to repent and write our own beautiful hymn of love! "Love is patient, love is kind, love is not jealous, it does not brag, it is not arrogant. It is not indiscreet, it does not seek its own good, it does not provoke anger, it does not reproach the wrong. It takes no pleasure in wickedness, but rejoices in the triumph of justice. It tolerates everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. And love never ceases."
We are all Sauls, Mary Magdalenes, demoniacs of Gadarenes, sinners. There were times in all our lives, let us hope there are not now, when we believed with Saul that violence and brutality could make our world a better place. There were such times in the life of Saint Francis too, who took part in the war with a weapon in his hand. Let us humbly look into ourselves, along with Mary Magdalene, who did not succumbed naively to a greater or lesser extent to so many seemingly innocent desires of the flesh? Like the devil of Gadara, we too, so often, emotionally chained to our own tombs, angrily throw stones and harsher words than stones at anyone who approaches us, hurting ourselves and others!
It is hard for us to understand that we are all God's children, and a Father cannot hate and condemn His child! We must not judge each other with contempt and hatred! God believes in the ultimate triumph of love, and He is infinitely grateful if, with persevering patience, even bearing hurt and insult, we turn with healing love to our brothers and sisters who have taken the path of sin!
O Lord, the love in my heart, the little sun that You gave me, which gives meaning to my life, is small, yet by Your example, according to Your will, I make it rise on good and bad alike. I will not let my doubting faith, fear of tomorrow, or anything else to stop the flowing ray of my love! I believe that, just as our frozen, cold world can be turned green by the springtime light in a few weeks, so too can our relationships be made alive and fruitful by love! The sun not only thinks of us with platonic love, but with its tiny photons, the particles of light embraces us, it is present, it follows us even in our locked apartments, through our keyholes. In the same way, I would like to be present with prayer, with a kind word, almost imperceptibly, in the lives of people even of those who hurt me.
With love from
Father Csaba
Photo: The blessed light illuminates the cloister of the three hundred year old monastery of Deva.
translated by MTI
