Homily

Already in the Old Testament, as we can see from our reading from the book of Deuteronomy, obedience to God was not simply the fearful observance of a set of rules. Of course, there were many "commands and statutes", but they had to be observed with the heart and the soul. That observance was part of a relationship with God. It was a agreement between God and the people, a covenant : Yahweh would be their God, and they would be his people. As for the people, they must walk in God's ways.

Through the Prophets, the people gradually learned something about God's ways. But the full revelation was made by Jesus, through his teaching and his life and death.

God's ways are ways of love, indiscriminate love. So, if we want to live as His children should, we should have a heart that does not distinguish between stranger and neighbor, between countryman and foreigner, between friend and enemy. We should be a sister or a brother to everyone and everyone should be considered as a brother or a sister to us.

If these very simple recommendations from the Lord were observed, many international conflicts could easily be resolved. Many community problems would also be resolved or would not exist.

For people involved in the formation of their sisters or brothers, this is obviously "Lecture number one" – something that we have heard many times before, but that takes on a particular meaning in this time of Lent, when we prepare ourselves to celebrate the Paschal Mystery of the death and resurrection of our Lord. That celebration will remind us that love has a price.

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READING I Dt 26, 16-19

A reading from the book of Deuteronomy

Moses spoke to the people, saying: "This day the Lord, your God, commands you to observe these statutes and decrees. Be careful, then, to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you are making this agreement with the Lord: he is to be your God and you are to walk in his ways and observe his statutes, commandments and decrees, and to hearken to his voice. And today the Lord is making this agreement with you: you are to be a people peculiarly his own, as he promised you; and provided you keep all his commandments, he will then raise you high in praise and renown and glory above all other nations he has made, and you will be a people sacred to the Lord, your God, as he promised."

GOSPEL Mt 5, 43-48

+ A reading from the holy gospel according to Matthew

Jesus said to his disciples: "You have heard the commandment, 'You shall love your countryman but hate your enemy.' My command to you is: love your enemies, pray for your persecutors. This will prove that you are sons of your heavenly Father, for his sun rises on the bad and the good, he rains on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that? Do not tax collectors do as much? And if you greet your brothers only, what is so praiseworthy about that? Do not pagans do as much? In a word, you must be perfected as your heavenly Father is perfect."