“Love of Enemies” (3 panels)
Matthew 5:43-48 in a quatrain
Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
©️2021 Gloria M. Chang
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor 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. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:43-48
Sunrise and sunset,
Showers and snow,
Fructify the seedbed
Of friend and foe.
Traditional Chinese Translation
《對敵人的愛》
日出和日落，
陣雨和降雪，
結實苗床予
朋友和敵人。
Rain falls on the just and unjust.
Sun shines on the good and evil.
Who am I to question gifts given?
God sets times for death and revival.
There is a time for everything!
Thank you for your reflection, Ellen!
The road to peace is filled
with one detour after another.
Leaders declare cease-fires
but how quickly these are broken.
Ancient cultural rifts continually
undermine treaty talks.
When human hearts have God’s peace,
we will love as sister and brother.
“Love makes the world go round,”
says the Beatles famous melody.
Lord, bless us with Triune love,
help peace on earth abound.
As Pope Leo XIV reflects: “…before being a religious matter, compassion is a question of humanity! Before being believers, we are called to be human… Religiosity does not enter into” the actions of the Samaritan who helps the beaten man on the road to Jericho. The healthy human heart empathizes with the suffering of others. May we recognize the image of God stamped in the peoples of every nation and culture.
Pope Leo XIV, General Audience, Wednesday, 28 May 2025