Dear St. Martin’s Parishioners,
This Sunday Jesus confronts us with maybe his most challenging commandment: “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” You may well think, “how is this possible?"
The first step is to know ourselves as beloved sons and daughters of God the Father and Mary, our Mother. If this isn’t our fundamental identity, if we aren’t totally encompassed by their love, then we are most likely egodriven to some degree. One spiritual director I know frequently says, “no one will know and love you as you desire to be known and loved, but God.” The more we receive our identity from our relationship with God and Mary, the less we “need” others to love us, affirm us, approve us to a degree that they never will be able to. Consequently, the less resentment we will have towards others for the ways that they have neglected or actively failed us in any of these respects. That way we can be free to love others without concern for ourselves. That is an on-going endeavor on our part.
The second step is proper self-love. Often our greatest “enemy” is ourself; the one who “hates” us is ourself. The more we can accept and love ourselves—not in a way that is enabling or permissive of sin—the more free we are to love others. We love others or are friends to others to the extent that we love and befriend ourselves. There may be a part of us that reacts to that statement by thinking, “That’s selfish! We should forget ourselves in order to love others.” But that reaction mistakes self-love and selffriendship for narcissism, and the narcissist does not love himself, but actually hates himself. “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” Jesus commands us, so surely proper self-love and love of neighbor go hand-in-hand.
Love is the most natural thing for us as human beings and also the most challenging. The grace of God present in our lives is always expanding our hearts so that we may love as God loves. That, in the end, is sanctity: to love as God loves. Have the courage to set out on this road to sanctity!
In Christ,
Fr. Dave
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