Perfect love

My reflection on Matthew (5:43-48) today centered on “perfect love” and “gratitude”.

Jesus says: "Love your enemies."  Who is our enemy?  An enemy is anyone whose will, desires, or agenda is conflicting with ours.  There’s a lot of that going on these days, isn’t there?

It's easy to love those who aren’t in conflict with us, but when we have to deal with someone who's causing a problem, the genuineness of our love is tested: Are we really concerned about them, or only about ourselves?

The more costly the conflict, the harder it is to love our opponents.  Love is a choice more than a feeling.  We choose to love, not because our enemies deserve our love, but because Jesus loves them so much that He died for them.  If we don't respond to our enemies with love, compassion, and forgiveness, we’re choosing to turn away from Jesus, because God is love.

Loving unconditionally means to "be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."  Perfection doesn’t mean committing no sins and making no mistakes.  Spiritual perfection means to love whole-heartedly, under all conditions.

"Under all conditions" doesn’t mean putting up with evil.  Healthy boundaries are also a part of unconditional love.  People who cross the line by sinning against us need to experience consequences that will give them an opportunity to learn and grow.  They might think that we're unloving, but we know our motives, we know how much we love them, and God surely knows.

We don't have to like everyone, but to be united to Jesus we do have to love everyone.  We shouldn’t unite ourselves to abusers by remaining with them, nor should we ignore a situation that needs to be corrected, but we are called to do good to all, just as our Father “causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”

If we trust God to make good come from the bad that happens as we deal with our enemies, we’re living in His love.  If we do good instead of retaliating or perpetuating the bad, we’re remaining in His love.  If we deal with others the way Jesus taught by example, we’re united to His love.

Our enemies help us discover the limits of our love.  When we react to their sins in un-Christ-like ways, we learn of our own need to seek forgiveness.  We realize that we have to rely on the Holy Spirit for supernatural love.  We're perfected.  

Gratitude is the happiness we’ve been given.  It’s the echo of joy.  To be grateful is to share.  There are high moments of ‘aliveness’ in our lives.  These moments of the heart are a deep all-pervading, overflowing sense of gratitude.  When we reach our innermost heart.   When we’re at home with ourselves when we’re intimately united with others.  We experience gratitude.

Genesis tells us God created us by breathing life into us (Genesis 2:7).  The heart is where we meet God.  But meeting God is prayer.  Prayer is the very heart of religion.   Hearts are restless until we find rest.  We find rest when we find meaning.  We find meaning when we find God.  God is the source of all meaning.  Gratitude strengthens our faith and makes it grow.  We grow in gratitude when we grow in love.  Praise God for our enemies!  We owe them our gratitude!