At the Sunday Angelus, Pope Francis meditated on the Gospel of the day which deals with replacing the Law of Talion with the Law of Christian Charity.

Newsdesk (21/02/2023 13:15, Gaudium Press) On Sunday, at the Angelus, Pope Francis commented on the Gospel of the 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, in which the Lord presents to His disciples the replacement of the Law of Talion (an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth) with the Law of Christian Charity: “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you! In this way you will become children of your Father who is in Heaven, for He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust” says Jesus.

“It is normal to love those who love us and to be friends with those who are our friends. However, Jesus provokes us by saying: if they act like this, ‘what do they do that is extraordinary?'” said the Pontiff. “We prefer to love only those who love us, to do good only to those who are good to us, to be generous only with those who can return the favour; and those who treat us badly we repay with the same coin,” he stressed.

But acting like this is not enough, according to Christ’s logic.

“If God followed that logic, we would have no hope of salvation! But, fortunately, God’s love is always ‘extraordinary,’ that is, it goes beyond the usual criteria with which we humans live our relationships”; if only human logic prevailed “Jesus would not have come to seek us while we were lost and distant, He would not have loved us to the end.”

The Pope invited us to allow ourselves to be permeated by Christ’s love, which “transforms conflicts, bridges distances, overcomes enmities and heals the wounds of hatred”.

Practicing this love “is not easy, but it is possible, it is possible because He Himself helps us by giving us the Holy Spirit, His love without measure.

With information from Vatican News

Compiled by Roberta MacEwan