At the heart of today’s challenging Gospel passage is Jesus’ statement: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (v. 36). Merciful love is a stubborn love, which remains faithful even if unrequited, which does not fail even if betrayed. This is the Father, Jesus says. Children share his feelings; better still, they share his same behaviors and thus demonstrate – first of all to themselves and then to others – that they are truly children. In a word: the son resembles the Father. This kinship bond, which is not visible to the eyes, is however made visible by the behavior of the Christian towards others. Here is the key to understanding the imperatives and comparisons used by Jesus. Outside of this relational horizon they are not even proposable (also because they are impossible to practice).
Since man lives in a dense network of relationships, Jesus proposes a new way to regulate them. No longer the logic of equality of giving and having, no longer the logic of reciprocity but that of excess. For example, with regard to forgiveness we go far beyond the renunciation of revenge. With regard to the enemy, Jesus suggests four attitudes: to love, to do good, to bless and to pray. The enemy, then, is a daily presence, that is, it is not only those who persecute but also those who speak badly, who hate, who treat others badly. In short, the enemy is under our house, perhaps we meet him on the street, in the same office, where we work to earn our bread. The imperatives are therefore imperatives of excess. The comparisons, however, such as offering the other cheek, not refusing the tunic… confirm a new way of building relationships. And in this case we can talk about gratuitousness. The comparisons are comparisons of gratuitousness. Here we have the difference between the pagan/sinner and the disciple. The pagan/sinner loves those who love him, lends to those who give back. Not so the disciple of the Gospel who in the image of the Master (and Jesus is the living icon of the Father) knows how to be benevolent even towards the ungrateful and the wicked.

Commentary by b. Sandro Carotta, osb
Abbazia di Praglia (Italy)

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves,
Prinknash Abbey