Jesus ( said to his disciples:”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, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?

So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:43-48)

James Tissot’s painting of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount captures how Jesus sometimes taught, Here he teaches outside Capernaum near the Sea of Galilee, sitting on a rock on a rising hill, .All kinds of people come to hear him. It’s a crowd. Everybody’s in a crowd, friends as well as enemies.

Hearing his teaching about loving and praying for our enemies, we may wonder how ordinary people, like those in Tissot’s painting, heard his words. How do we receive them?

Here’s a short reflection from a previous day in this week’s liturgy:

“I n the form of a parable, we see a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. When one of them was separated from the flock and lost its way, that shepherd did not remain with the sheep who kept together at pasture. No, he went off to look for the stray. He crossed many valleys and thickets, he climbed great and towering mountains, he spent much time and labour in wandering through solitary places until at last he found his sheep. 

  When he found it, he did not chastise it; he did not use rough blows to drive it back, but gently placed it on his own shoulders and carried it back to the flock. He took greater joy in this one sheep, lost and found, than in all the others. 

  Look more closely at the hidden meaning of this parable. The sheep is more than a sheep, the shepherd more than a shepherd. They are examples enshrining holy truths. They teach us that we should not look on people as lost or beyond hope; we should not abandon them when they are in danger or be slow to come to their help. When they turn away from the right path and wander, we must lead them back, and rejoice at their return, welcoming them back into the company of those who lead good and holy lives.”

( Saint Asterius of Amasea)