You have heard that it was said: "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy". But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5: 43-45
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When Jesus asked his disciples to love and bless their enemies, it seemed that he was asking them for something impossible to achieve for human nature.
But God never asks us for something we can not do. When something seems impossible for us, he is willing to be our unconditional support, and gives us what is necessary to achieve it.
If a person hurts us, it is possible that feelings of rejection towards her are generated in our interior. His presence alone makes us uncomfortable, and many times in our interior we want things to go wrong. When we allow this attitude to grow within us, what we finally reap is resentment, which inevitably leads us to bitterness. The price paid for living with rancor is too high. Sometimes life itself is even put at risk.
The word enemy in the Old Testament: tsarar means: he who binds, binds, he who causes anguish. He who presses hard and shows hostility. Also one that annoys and harasses.
There is also another Hebrew word 'ayab: which means: "treat like an enemy" "be hostile".
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Be an adversary for some. Pursue it as an enemy. To be that breath, blow, snort that angers and produces hate. In the New Testament the equivalent word is: ἐχθρός which means: he who is detestable, hateful, hostile, and who is in opposition to the other.
J.P Senn said: It requires less character to discover the faults of others than to learn to tolerate them.
Why should we bless them? Blessing those who hate you opens a door of blessing for your life. You will come to possess all that your enemy possesses. Glory to GOD!
My friends have bound me to earth, my enemies have made me detach from it and have destroyed my aspirations in this world.
My enemies have made me a foreigner in the kingdoms of the earth and that I live as a stranger in this world.
Just as an animal pursued by hunters finds a more secure refuge than a carefree animal, I, pursued by my enemies, found the safest sanctuary hidden under Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can kill my soul.
Bless them and multiply them; Multiply them and turn them even more against me, so that my flight to You is without return, my hope in men vanishes like a spider's web, a total serenity begins to reign in my soul, my heart becomes the tomb of those two evil ones sisters, arrogance and anger, I can treasure my treasure in heaven and finally I am free of the self-deception that has entangled me in the terrible tangle of this illusory life.
My enemies have taught me what almost no one knows: that the only enemy a man has in this world is himself.
When someone treats us with injustice, our hidden "I" feels threatened and attacked, and all the internal force prepares for combat. This is a useless waste that consumes the spiritual, physical and emotional reserves.
On the other hand, to ask God to grant blessings to our enemies implies putting aside our pride to voluntarily clothe ourselves with humility.
Pray for our enemies is a decision we must make with determination, even if the heart experiences contrary emotions and feelings.
The strength to carry it out comes from God. When we wish "good" to others, even if they do not deserve it, we are also attracting "good" to our own lives.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who are happy; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be arrogant, instead make yourselves supportive with the humble. Do not create the only ones that know. Do not pay anyone evil for evil. Try to do good in front of everyone. If possible, and as soon as it depends on you, live in peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my brothers, but leave the punishment in the hands of God, because it is written: "Mine is revenge; I will pay, "says the Lord. Rather, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink. Acting like this, you will make him ashamed of his behavior. "Do not let yourself be overcome by evil; On the contrary, he overcomes evil with good. Romans 12: 14-21
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Have not I told you not to give rise to anger? I can not bring justice if you always take matters into your own hands. Forgiveness is what makes a place for judgments in My Kingdom, says the Lord. I see injustice, reproach, and betrayal, and I will certainly pay. But, my anger, will also lead to conviction and repentance. You do not have to handle your situation. Trust in Me and I will bring justice to every circumstance. The only thing you have to handle is your own indignation.
Jesus calls us not only to do good deeds to our enemies, like to greet them and help them in their needs; He also calls us to wish for the best for them, and to express those desires in prayers when the enemy is not around.
Our hearts should desire their salvation and long for their presence in heaven and want their eternal happiness. Then we prayed like the apostle Paul did for the Jews, many of whom did not make life very easy for him.
Divert from me, my God, the idea of cursing him and all malevolent desire against him. Do not let me experience any joy for the misfortunes I may have, nor pity for the goods that can be granted, in order not to stain my soul with thoughts unworthy of a Christian.
Lord, may your kindness extend over him and lead him to better feelings about me.
Inspire me the oblivion of evil and the memory of good. That neither hatred, nor rancor, nor the desire to turn evil for evil, enter my heart, because hatred and revenge belong only to evil spirits, incarnated and disembodied.
On the contrary, may I be ready to fraternally extend my hand, to make him good for evil and to help him if possible.
I wish, to prove the sincerity of my words, that I be offered the opportunity to be useful; but above all, my God, preserve me from doing anything out of pride or ostentation, confusing him with a humiliating generosity, which would make me lose the fruit of my action, because then I would deserve to be applied to those words of Christ: "You have already received the reward "
When we are able to ask for blessings for someone who has mistreated us, the wounds of the heart will heal, and the pain of the offense will disappear little by little, which will finally bring us peace. Friend, if in your heart there are accumulated resentments, today is the day of your liberation. When you pray and say "Father, forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors," do so with the assurance of having cast out of your heart all rancor and resentment.
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