Pope Francis exhorted the faithful in a Tuesday homily to love one’s enemy — even when the enemy is a terrorist who blows up other people.
It’s what Jesus teaches, he said, the Catholic News Agency reported. The forgiveness principle and the biblical command to love all is all-encompassing, he said. At the same time, he admitted that obedience to the teaching is tougher in certain circumstances, CNA reported.
For instance, he asked, how to love those who “bomb and kill so many people? … [How to] love those who out of their love for money prevent the elderly from accessing the necessary medicine and leave them to die? … [What about those who seek] their own best interests, power for themselves and do so much evil? It seems hard to love your enemy.”
At the same time, the pope said, as CNA reported, it’s a love that is “so hard, but so beautiful because it makes us look like the Father. … It brings out the sun for everyone, good and bad. It makes us more like the son, Jesus, who in his humiliation became poor to enrich us, with his poverty.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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