Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

Readings for Sunday: 1 Samuel, 1 Corinthians, Luke

Sometimes Jesus’ commands seem crazy; for example, in today’s Gospel, he tells us to “love our enemies, do good to those who hate you.” Yet, if we understand it, it makes perfect sense. In the first place, the actual word in the original Greek text is Ἀγαπᾶτε (agapate); it is the command form of the verb agapaó, “to love.” But this is different than the other Greek words for love such as phileō (brotherly love, the love of friends), stérgō (family feeling), éramai (physical love, romantic love, sexual love). Agapaó means to do good for the other person without expectation of repayment. It has nothing to do with how you feel, rather, it is about what you do. Jesus would ultimately say, “No one has greater love (agape) than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

We, as sinners, were in a sense God’s enemies. St. Paul wrote, “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We see God’s love for us in the Cross. We see God’s love in what he did for us, not expeting repayment because it is impossible to buy or earn or compensate God’s for our salvation. As God loves us, we are to love others, even our enemies.

There is a difference between authentically loving someone and liking someone. Liking someone means you enjoy being around that person, and or you agree with that person, and so on. You can truly love (agapaó) someone while not liking him. You can like someone without truly loving her. We have probably all had friends who like us but didn’t truly love us: they were not there when we truly needed them or they were not willing to do good for us without expecting some kind of payment or return. Jesus is not like that: he truly loves us, even when we are not being very likable; he truly loves us even though we are sinners.