Some teachings sound beautiful until they brush against our wounds. “Love your enemies” is one of them. It meets our anger, our memories of injustice, and our desire for fairness, and it asks more than we think we can give. Today’s readings do not deny the pain of wrongs suffered; they place our pain within a larger story—Christ’s own life in us—so that mercy becomes not naïveté, but participation in the very heart of God.
Putting on the New Garment of Christ (Col 3:12–17)
Paul’s verbs are strikingly concrete: put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience; bear with one another; forgive as the Lord forgave you; and over all, put on love—the “bond of perfection” (Col 3:12–14). He is not describing a mood; he is describing a wardrobe. In Christ, we are not merely improved—we are newly dressed.
St. Irenaeus taught that the Son “recapitulates” our humanity, summing up Adam’s story and refashioning it in Himself. To “put on” these virtues is to be clothed in Christ’s own life, not our own best efforts stitched together. When “the peace of Christ” governs our hearts and “the word of Christ” dwells richly within us (Col 3:15–16), love ceases to be an ideal and becomes the fabric of our daily choices—how we answer an email, how we speak about an opponent, how we say yes or no.
Love Beyond Reciprocity (Lk 6:27–35)
Jesus dismantles the logic of transaction: do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you; give without expecting return (Lk 6:27–30, 34–35). He is not valorizing passivity or endorsing abuse; He is freeing us from the tyranny of retaliation and the prison of resentment. If there is danger or ongoing harm, love can take the form of truth, boundaries, and lawful recourse; mercy never requires enabling evil. But even as we seek justice, the Christian refuses to mirror malice. We refuse to become what hurt us.
St. John Chrysostom, master of the moral sense of Scripture, insisted that almsgiving and doing good without calculation are not extras; they are the plain imprint of the Gospel. “Lend expecting nothing back,” Jesus says (Lk 6:35). Chrysostom would add: when you release the claim to repayment, you place your treasure where moth cannot consume it—into God’s hands and into your own transformation.
Mercy’s Measure (Lk 6:36–38)
“Be merciful, just as also your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). To imitate the Father is to live from a different source. The Lord then names four liberations: stop judging, stop condemning, forgive, and give (Lk 6:37–38). This is not a ban on discernment—love must discern the good—but a prohibition of the self-exalting posture that fixes others in their worst moment. The measure we use—the stories we tell about others, the generosity we extend, the patience we offer—will shape us first and return to us eventually (Lk 6:38).
Breath Turned to Praise (Ps 150; 1 Jn 4:12)
“Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (Ps 150:6). Praise reorients the heart away from scorekeeping and toward God’s abundance. Even on days of grief and remembrance, when wounds are raw and losses are revisited, the psalm bids us to place our breath—our anxiety, our anger, our longing—into God’s song. And the Alleluia whispers the secret of transformation: “If we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is brought to perfection in us” (1 Jn 4:12). We do not generate this love; we host it. God remains; His love matures in the very act of our loving.
Growing into God’s Mercy (St. Gregory of Nyssa)
Gregory of Nyssa described the Christian life as epektasis—unceasing growth into God’s infinite goodness. “Be merciful as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36) is not a one-time feat; it is a lifelong ascent. Each act of patience enlarges capacity; each prayer for an enemy stretches the heart; each boundary established without bitterness purifies love. Holiness is not a sudden leap to perfection, but a thousand daily steps toward the One whose mercy has no shore.
Practices for Today
- Clothe your morning: Before work or school, name and “put on” one virtue from Col 3:12 you will practice in a specific situation today.
- Pray for one adversary: Speak their name before God and ask for their good (Lk 6:27–28). If needed, pair this with a prudent boundary.
- Give without calculation: Offer time, attention, or material help where there is little chance of return (Lk 6:35).
- Check your measure: Before posting or replying online, ask, “Would I want this standard used on me?” (Lk 6:38).
- Breathe praise: Use Psalm 150 as a breath prayer—inhale “Let everything that has breath,” exhale “praise the Lord.” Let praise interrupt rumination.
- Reconciliation step: Make one concrete move toward forgiveness—a note, an apology, or an interior release to God—even if full reconciliation is not yet possible (Lk 6:37).
Christ’s command to love enemies is not a rule bolted onto life; it is the life of Christ unfolding within us. Clothed in His compassion, governed by His peace, and sustained by His praise, we become—slowly but truly—children of the Most High who is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Lk 6:35). And in that likeness, the world catches its breath and hears a different music.