Dear Saints,

This weekend's Gospel passage gives us an extended look at Saint Luke’s account of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain. This portion of Jesus’ preaching presents us with the challenge and the consolation of Jesus’ vision.

We experience this in miniature - getting the extreme of both challenge and consolation - when Jesus commands his followers to "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you."

We might miss the consolation in this command, so let me tease it out: Jesus not only thinks we’re capable of being merciful as our Father is merciful, he intends to equip us for and sustain us in the task. God dreams of our living out a totally renewed humanity, and Jesus is going to get us there.

Let me also reissue the challenge, my dear friends, that this is the true mark of the Christian: he loves his enemies.

Do we?

Of course, we can't do it of our own strength alone. But the Spirit of the one who - out of love! - was unjustly accused, was spat upon and scourged, was crowned with thorns and made to carry his cross, and was crucified as a common criminal lives in us.

Jesus loved in the face of extreme hate in order to turn the world upside down (really, to put the world right-side up), and that's what we do when we embody his love for the world. God’s love - and his love at work in us and working through us - was not defeated by death, and will not be deterred by hatred, ridicule, or scorn. By trusting and following Jesus, we too can persevere in love for all!

In the Peace of Christ,

Father Daniel
δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ