There is a sentence in today’s Gospel that is among the most challenging words Jesus ever spoke:
“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Most of us can understand loving our family.
Loving our friends.
Loving people who are kind to us.
But loving enemies?
Praying for people who have hurt us?
That feels unnatural.
And Jesus knows it.
That is exactly why He says it.
The first reading gives us a striking example of the opposite.
Yesterday we heard how King Ahab stole Naboth’s vineyard through lies, corruption, and murder.
Today the prophet Elijah confronts him.
The king who thought he had escaped justice suddenly finds God standing before him.
Not directly, but through His prophet.
And Ahab hears the truth.
The truth he has been avoiding.
The truth he does not want to hear.
The truth about himself.
One of the most dangerous things in life is the ability to justify our own sins.
Ahab had probably convinced himself that what happened to Naboth was unfortunate but necessary.
Powerful people often do.
We can all do it.
We explain away our faults.
Excuse our behaviour.
Shift the blame.
Find reasons why our sins are not really sins.
But God loves us too much to leave us living in lies.
And so Elijah comes.
Not to destroy Ahab.
But to call him to repentance.
And remarkably, Ahab listens.
Not perfectly.
Not completely.
But genuinely.
For perhaps the first time in a long while, he stops defending himself.
He humbles himself.
He fasts.
He mourns.
And God sees it.
That is one of the most hopeful moments in the Old Testament.
Because Ahab is not a good man.
He is not a saint.
He has done terrible things.
Yet even now God notices the first movement of repentance.
The first step back.
The first crack in the wall of pride.
Sometimes people imagine that holiness begins when we become perfect.
It does not.
It begins when we become honest.
When we stop pretending.
When we stop making excuses.
When we finally say:
“Lord, I have sinned.”
That is where conversion begins.
And that leads us directly into the Gospel.
Jesus says:
“Love your enemies.”
Why?
Because that is how God loves.
Notice the reason Jesus gives.
God causes the sun to rise on both the good and the bad.
The rain falls on both the just and the unjust.
God’s love is not limited to people who deserve it.
If it were, none of us would be here.
The whole Christian faith rests on that truth.
God loved us before we loved Him.
God forgave us before we deserved it.
God showed mercy while we were still sinners.
St Richard of Chichester understood this deeply.
His famous prayer is simple:
“May I know Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, and follow Thee more nearly, day by day.”
That is the prayer of a saint.
Not a prayer for success.
Not a prayer for comfort.
A prayer for deeper friendship with Christ.
Richard lived at a time of political conflict, division, and hardship.
Yet he became known for holiness, charity, and courage.
He did not simply admire Christ.
He wanted to become like Christ.
And that is what today’s Gospel demands of us.
It is easy to love people who love us.
Anyone can do that.
Jesus says so Himself.
But Christians are called to something greater.
We are called to love as the Father loves.
To forgive when it would be easier to resent.
To pray when it would be easier to complain.
To show mercy when it would be easier to keep score.
That does not mean pretending evil is good.
It does not mean approving wrongdoing.
It means refusing to allow hatred to take root in our hearts.
Because hatred always damages the person who carries it.
The saints understood that.
They knew that forgiveness is not weakness.
It is strength.
Mercy is not surrender.
It is victory.
Love is not defeat.
It is the triumph of grace.
And so today the Church places before us two men.
Ahab, who finally learns humility.
And Richard, who learned to follow Christ more nearly every day.
Both remind us that holiness begins with conversion.
With letting God tell us the truth.
With allowing grace to change us.
And with asking each day:
Lord, help me know You more clearly,
love You more dearly,
and follow You more nearly,
day by day.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 