Not everyone likes us. And we like everyone?

We choose meals in the restaurant. We decide our culture… We choose our friends… Jesus says: “…be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”! (Mt 5:48). Love simply embraces all professions, embraces all times and places, and is eternal. We are to show mercy to our neighbors. Jesus tells us this very clearly in today’s Gospel. Our Lord goes even further and asks us to show love and do good deeds, especially to those who have no way to repay us. We are even to love and to pray even for our enemies. Such perfection can be achieved only when we look to Christ nailed to the cross and draw strength from him.

A man named Dapozzo spent eight years in a Nazi concentration camp. When he returned home to his family, he confided all that he had to fight there, saying: “I used to be of a strong frame, but then I did not weigh more than 45 kg, and my whole body bore the marks of the wounds I had received. I had a broken right shoulder without treatment. On the evening of Christmas 1943, the commander called me. I stood in front of him half naked and barefoot. He was at a table decorated with the choicest delicacies. I was to assist the starving women at his royal dinner. And yet I tried my best, as a Christian, to like him. After the meal, the second lieutenant brought coffee and cookies. The commander liked them, he looked at me and said: “Your wife is an excellent cook, Dapozzo!” I did not understand what he meant. He explained it to me himself: “For years my wife has been sending you cakes, which I have always enjoyed immensely.” The temptation to hate him was unbearable. My wife and my four children saved from their small allowances of flour, butter, and sugar to send me those cakes, … and this man always ate them. I asked the commander to at least let me smell the cakes to remind me of home. He refused, yelling, “Raus! Out!” After the war, I found a trace of this commander. He changed his name and led a simple life, trying not to attract attention. In 1953, I went to visit him with a friend. He didn’t recognize me. So I introduced myself: “I’m number 17531. Do you remember Christmas 1943?” Horror seized him. “Have you come to take revenge on me?”, he asked in an expressionless voice. Instead of answering, I opened a large package in front of him. It had delicious cakes. I asked his wife if would she be so kind as to make us coffee. Then we shared the cakes and the four of us drank coffee. We were quiet the whole time. The commander wept and said: “How could you forgive me?” I answered him: “For the love of Christ.”

Yes, we are to forgive. It is right, Christian, that for the love of Jesus, we want to love even our enemies… Let’s take these words of Jesus into our lives.