February 24, 2018 Saturday of the 1st Week in Lent-B

Deuteronomy 26:16-19

Psalm 119

Matthew 5:43-48

 “…love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…”  Mt. 5:44

Lord, I find myself looking for loopholes in your command to love my enemies.  I try to find ways to draw lines or place boundaries around my relationships with those people who are difficult or hurtful toward me.  Are there any ways around actually treated them as my brother and sister?  Even if I reject vengeance or payback it’s so much easier, Lord, to cut them out of my life and pretend they aren’t there.  But my conscience tells me you don’t endorse that way.  I gotta admit you probably don’t treat your enemies that way.  Thank you, Lord, for not putting a boundary around your love and mercy.  You love without condition and you call me to do the same.  But you give me also a place to start: prayer.  If I can bring myself to pray for that nasty person in my workplace, the noisy and disagreeable neighbor, the disrespectful teenager or the person who stole my identity on line, then I can begin to love them.   After the first step of prayer, anything is possible.  Lord, help me to love as you love.  Amen.