Love Your Enemies

MARCH 04, 2023 SATURDAY

Saturday of the First Week of Lent (Violet)

CYCLE A - YEAR I

Lectionary: 229

Reading 1

Dt 26:16-19

Moses spoke to the people, saying:

"This day the LORD, your God,

commands you to observe these statutes and decrees.

Be careful, then,

to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

Today you are making this agreement with the LORD:

he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways

and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees,

and to hearken to his voice.

And today the LORD is making this agreement with you:

you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you;

and provided you keep all his commandments,

he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory

above all other nations he has made,

and you will be a people sacred to the LORD, your God,

as he promised."

Responsorial Psalm

Ps 119:1-2, 4-5, 7-8

R. (1b)  Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Blessed are they whose way is blameless,

who walk in the law of the LORD.

Blessed are they who observe his decrees,

who seek him with all their heart.

R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

You have commanded that your precepts

be diligently kept.

Oh, that I might be firm in the ways

of keeping your statutes!

R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

I will give you thanks with an upright heart,

when I have learned your just ordinances.

I will keep your statutes;

do not utterly forsake me.

R. Blessed are they who follow the law of the Lord!

Verse Before the Gospel

2 Cor 6:2b

Behold, now is a very acceptable time;

behold, now is the day of salvation.

Gospel

Mt 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:

"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 and sisters only,

what is unusual about that?

Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."

GOSPEL REFLECTION:

Jesus teaches his followers about a new criterion of love which is to be the standard for the early Christian community and for us. It is not enough just to ‘love those who love you’. To truly live as disciple of Jesus demands that we reach out to others with an all-embracing love, including those who make life difficult for us.

"If we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us."

(1 John 4:12)

PRAYER:

Lord, you warn us against tribal or racial exclusiveness: that is where we love only our kith and kin, and reject outsiders. For you there are no outsiders. Your sun shines and your rain falls on all alike. We are to open our hearts even to those who hate us.