I think that our first reaction when we hear today’s Gospel would be: ‘How can this be? How can you not only forgive your enemies but love them as Jesus is asking of us?’
Today's first reading narrates part of the story of David and Saul; Saul was very jealous of David because the Lord was with David. This all started when David killed the giant Goliath; the prophet Samuel had already told Saul that God had rejected him, and so Saul’s jealousy kept increasing. It was not the first time that Saul tried to kill David, and David had to flee from Saul along with his friends. In today’s first reading, Saul and his soldiers were searching for David and those with him to kill them. As we heard, David had a perfect opportunity to kill Saul, who wanted to kill him, but he said to his companion, "Do not kill him! For who can lay his hand on the Lord’s anointed and remain guiltless?"
In today’s Psalm, we heard, ‘The Lord is merciful and kind, slow to anger and abounding in compassion. He does not treat us according to our sins nor repay us according to our iniquities.’ If we expect God to forgive us, how can we not forgive one another? And in the Gospel, Jesus tells us, ‘But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good... and your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.’ If we start reasoning about whether the person who hurt us deserves to be forgiven or not, we will never reach the point of forgiving. The reason why we forgive should be only one: because God has forgiven us, and we want Him to forgive us.
I think that the love for enemies that Jesus asks of us is the most difficult thing among all that God asks of us. Jesus is not just telling us not to seek revenge, but He is telling us to love our enemies. Humanly speaking, this seems impossible, but for us who believe, what seems humanly impossible, we know is possible for God. The forgiveness that Jesus asks of us is a grace that only He can and wants to give us if we desire it and ask for it sincerely.
Therefore, it is important to reflect that when we wish to forgive and ask for the grace of forgiveness, the first and greatest gift we give is to ourselves because we free our hearts from hatred and vengeance, which do much more harm to those who hold on to them than to those who are their victims. A person’s heart and mind that harbor feelings and thoughts of revenge are, at the same time, pushing away God, who knows only how to show mercy, forgive, and love.
Let us ask ourselves: Who is that person or those people whom I have not yet forgiven, or worse, whom I do not want to forgive? Do I admit to myself that I have been hurt, and at the same time, do I acknowledge that the wound will not be healed by me hurting back those who hurt me? Do I pray for those who hurt me as Jesus did, and do I also pray that He gives me the grace to forgive?
We ask You, Jesus, to help us understand that forgiveness offers freedom not only to those who offended us but, above all, it offers freedom to us. Help us so that we may pray for those who have harmed us and genuinely desire to forgive them so that the power of Your grace may accomplish in us what seems impossible. Ammen.