Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY — Praying for one’s enemies can heal hearts and lead Christians toward the path of perfection, Pope Francis said.
“I can assure you that this prayer will do two things: It will make that person better because prayer is powerful, and it will make us more like children of the Father,” he said June 14 during Mass in the chapel of the his residence.
The Gospel for the day, Matthew 5:43-36, recalled Jesus telling his disciples to “be perfect, just as your heavenly father is perfect.”
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” Jesus says.
While the scribes worried themselves with “theoretical and casuistic” interpretations, the pope said, Jesus “recovers the true meaning of the law” by placing love of God and neighbor at the center.
“The very heart of the law, which is the love of God given to us,” was missing from the scribes’ discussion, the pope said. “For this reason, the Lord repeats what was in the Old Testament: What is the greatest commandment? To love God with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your soul and your neighbor as yourself,” the pope said.
Jesus’ teaching, he added, emphasizes a path of healing that allows Christians to “resemble the Father who is perfect.”
Recalling his childhood, Pope Francis said that it was customary for people to pray that God “would reserve a place in hell” for “one of the great dictators of that time.”
However, God’s call to “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” is the final and most difficult step toward true perfection for Christians.
“May the Lord give us the grace; only this: to pray for our enemies, to pray for those who wish us evil, for those who do not wish us well. To pray for those who hurt us, who persecute us. And each one of us knows their first and last name,” the pope said.
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