Being Perfect!

Saturday, February 28, 2026

Deut 26:16-19; Mt 5: 43-48

Today’s Gospel highlights love of enemies as a worthy way to imitate the perfection of God.

The unique invitation of Jesus to love our enemies can be understood in five stages.

1. A New Benchmark: By inviting us to love even our enemies, Jesus raises the standard for his followers. Jesus does not suggest love of enemies as an option. He demands it as a distinctive identity of Christians. He turned himself into an example of it on the cross. 

2. A Positive Command: ‘Doing good and avoiding evil’ is the first principle of practical reason, having its foundation in natural law. But ‘avoiding evil’ is not adequate for Jesus. Instead, he wants his disciples to defy the commonsense principle and love their enemies. 

3. Not Moral Weakness: Love of enemies does not indicate one’s moral weakness. For Jesus, his disciples derive their moral strength from practicing this form of radical love. Weak people choose retaliation. Strong people choose love. Jesus wants his disciples to choose love.

4. Impartiality of God’s Love: God loves the good and the bad alike. God’s love is for everyone, and that is why it is divine. An ancient Tamil poem reflects Jesus’ wisdom. ‘Water poured out to paddy fields flows through canal/ and does good to the grass in the bund/ Likewise, if a good person lives in the world, it rains for his/her sake and does good to all’ (Moothurai, no. 10). 

5. Grace Perfects Love: Love of enemies belongs to Christian charity. We need God’s grace and the strength of will to do this. It is God’s grace that perfects our love for our enemies. When we practice the love of enemies, it means we act from Christ’s heart. 

Let us pray that we may imitate Jesus’ example to attain moral perfection. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar