“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you. For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same…Rather, love your enemies and do good to them, and lend expect nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful.
‘Stop judging and you will not be judged. Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts will be given you; a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap. For the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.’”—Luke 6: 27-38
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GOD always has the answer. GOD always finds a way to speak and commune in times we need HIM most; but we must open ourselves to receive and see—and give Testament when we do.
Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those that mistreat you—even should they kill you. Christianity is a religion spread of martyrs—not the modern kind that seek death after prosecution of murder and violence against “enemies,” but the kind who are murdered in the act of engagement, evangelization—loving, doing good, blessing, and praying for those who’ve fallen away, are alien to, or active adversaries of Christ and His Love.
Everyday around the world, martyrs still die, and by their blood, our Faith is spread—loving, praying, doing good in spite of the evil that seeks to defeat by fear, intimidation, coercion, violence, and murder.
GOD ALWAYS WINS. Love your enemies. Do good to those that hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. This is how the Gospel spreads—by actions, not just Words—and though bad may come in the acts of living Good, from the bad further miracles can work. It is often in seeing the worst that closed and hardened hearts are changed.
“The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in Him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only GOD, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”[i]
The words of Saint Paul, who prosecuted arrest, enslavement, and murder of those practicing the Faith he would, after—encountering Christ on the Road to Damascus, loved by his enemy—give his own life in surrender to: first in evangelization and witness and finally sacrifice of body in city where the Church still stands, gloriously alive in the dead heart and ancient skeletons of an empire’s ruins.
Saint Paul is proof, all of us have the capacity to be Saints.
Love your enemies. Do good to those that hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you.
The demons are loud. The demons are violent—because GOD IS WINNING. Keep the fight. Keep the Faith. Serve and live as Jesus calls.
The demons are loud. The demons are violent—because GOD IS WINNING.
Love your enemies. Do good to those that hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you—even should it make us martyrs. Such is way GOD’S LOVE spreads and hard and hate-blinded souls are changed—as was in the beginning, end, and will always be—as proven on and of the Cross.
[i] 1 Timothy 1: 15-17