Love Your Enemies

Fr. Michael’s Message
“Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.”
            Holiness can seem to the casual observer an unobtainable  goal, a pursuit so lofty that one might as well be commanded to “stop breathing” or “jump ten feet in the air.” Yet God never commands us to do something that we cannot, through His grace, accomplish. So how do we become holy, like God is holy? The answer is found in our readings this week, where in both the Old Testament book of Leviticus and in our reading from Matthew we are commanded to forgive and love those who have wronged us. Jesus tells us to love and forgive our enemies. This might be one of the most consistently overlooked passages in the Gospels by the majority of Christians. If you do not forgive with all your heart those who have hurt you, then you cannot receive God’s forgiveness, as we pray in the Our Father every Mass we attend. That is pretty serious! So our Mission this week is to take the small handouts we are giving out at the doors, which gives a simple step-by-step process for forgiveness, and to go do it. Who do you need to forgive? Even if it was a person or an even that occurred decades ago, we need to go through that process of forgiveness so that we can be free. Forgiveness is not a feeling: it is a choice, a decision made in cooperation with God’s grace. I pray that each one of us might experience the healing power of forgiveness in our own hearts and families, so that we can become holy, as God our Father is holy. God bless you!