After having proclaimed that the disciples are blessed because they cry, are poor, hungry and persecuted, Jesus addresses the crowds who are listening to Him and enunciates an overwhelming principle “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. “

There are four imperatives – love, do good, bless, pray! – that do not leave any doubts about how the Christian should behave in the face of evil.

This proves unequivocally that Jesus refuses, in the most absolute way, the use of violence.

We react, instinctively, with aggression against the culprit. We are convinced that by” to make the enemy pay”, justice is established and everyone is given a lesson in life.

Love is the only attitude that creates the novelty. There are Christians who recognize, very honestly, that even by striving, they will never be able to love those who have caused them irreparable damage: those who have slandered them, those who have ruined their careers, those who have destroyed serenity and peace in their family.

Jesus does not demand that we become friends of those who make us evil. Neither did He feel sympathy for Anna and Caiaphas, for the Pharisees, for Herod whom He nicknamed “fox”, for Herodias who had the Baptist killed.

Sympathy does not depend on us, it can not be commanded, it arises spontaneously among people who are esteemed, and are in tune because of their character.

The Master asks to love, that is, not to look at his own rights, but at the needs of the other.

It is not enough not to respond to evil with evil, to injustice with insult, we must keep ourselves in the position to welcome the other: it is necessary to always take the first step to go to meet those who have made mistakes, to help them get out of their dramatic condition.

It’s not easy. Here is the reason why prayer is recommended. Only prayer turns off aggression and disarms the heart. It communicates the feelings of the Father who is in Heaven and gives us the strength that comes from the love of God.

Prayer for the enemy is the highest point of love because it presupposes a heart that is willing to let itself be purified by all forms of hate.

When we place ourselves before God we can not lie, we can only ask Him to fill those who harm us with grace. When we are able to pray in this way, our heart is in harmony with that of our Heavenly Father “who makes His sun rise on evil and good, and He sends rain on righteous and unrighteous.” (Mt 5:45 ).

Luisa, in her office as a victim, has always prayed for sinners, repairing and alleviating the sufferings that Jesus undergoes for their conversion.

On November 1, 1912 Jesus told Luisa that the soul who thinks about herself impoverishes herself. In living the Divine Will there is plenty to do: to pray and to repair for others. Those who need something think about themselves. Jesus needs nothing. He is sanctity itself, happiness itself, immensity, height and depth themselves. Jesus lacks nothing – nothing. His Being contains all possible and imaginable goods within Itself. If any thought occupies Jesus, it is for mankind, which He released from Himself, and which He wants to return into Himself. And in this same condition does He place the souls who truly want to do the Divine Will – they are one with Him, and He renders them the owners of His goods, because in the Divine Will there is no slavery: what is His, is theirs, and whatever He wants, they want as well. So, if one feels the need of something, it means that she is not really in the Divine Will, or at the most, she makes some descents.

Does it not seem strange that one who has formed one single thing – one single Will – with Jesus, asks Him for mercy, pardon, blood, pains, when He made her the owner together with Him? He does not know what mercy, what pardon to give her, since He gave her everything. Therefore, Jesus recommends that we not leave the Divine Will, and that we continue not to think about ourselves, but about others- as Luisa did- otherwise we would impoverish ourselves and would feel the need for everything.

We could summarize the message of the Gospel by saying that there are three categories of people: on the lowest step, there are the wicked (those who do evil even if they receive good); higher, there are the righteous (those who respond to good with good and evil with evil); finally, there are those who respond to evil with good. They are the children of God and reproduce in themselves the behavior of the Father.

don Marco