Patrick Comerford
Patrick Comerford
We are in Ordinary Time and the week began with the Second Sunday after Trinity (Trinity II, 14 June 2025). The calendar of the Church of England in Common Worship today remembers Saint Richard (1197-1253), Bishop of Chichester, and Joseph Butler (1692-1752), Bishop of Durham, Philosopher.
Today is Bloomsday, and so, in my own trbute to James Joyce, I may spend time re-reading parts of ULysses during the day. Before today begins, I am taking some quiet time this morning to give thanks, to reflect, to pray and to read in these ways:
1, reading today’s Gospel reading;
2, a short reflection;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary;
4, the Collects and the Post-Communion prayer of the day.
Matthew 5: 43-48 (NRSVA):
[Jesus said:] 43 ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’
Today’s Reflections:
The Gospel reading for the Eucharist this morning (Matthew 5: 43-48) continues our readings from the Sermon on the Mount, and continues reading from a passage that has often been misused and misinterpreted.
I wonder how often this reading has been a crippling burden on new disciples as they seek to live out their Christian faith?
‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (verse 44) – now that’s a tough one for everyone. And what about: ‘Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect’ (verse 48)? That’s seemingly impossible.
So, as I did yesterday, let me look at each of these challenges.
The phrase, ‘Keep your friends close and your enemy closer’, is often used in situations where someone seeks to convey that do not trust some of the people around them.
The word ‘enemy’ (verses 43-44) comes from the Latin word enim, meaning ‘against’. In English, it means someone who is against us or our interests. For example, an enemy might be a person who wants to harm us physically or emotionally.
The Greek word used here, ἐχθρός ( echthros), refers to some who is hated, under disfavour, inimical, hostile, an enemy or adversary. In the New Testament, it refers to enemies of various kinds, including personal adversaries, enemies of God, and even the devil as the ultimate enemy of humanity.
In classical literature, Aristotle and other Greek writers classified people encountered by characters in tragedy into φίλοι (philoi, friends and loved ones), ἐχθροὶ (echthroi, enemies), and μηδετέροι (medetoeroi), who are neither friends nor enemies but neutral. The characters and their audience seek a positive outcome for the first group and the downfall of the second, as the third group watch on passively or offer commentary.
Can we seek the downfall of our enemies, yet want what is best for them in God’s eyes?
At the time of Christ, ‘love’ and ‘hate,’ were not understood in terms of internal emotional feelings, or attitudes. He is not asking us to romantically or unquestioningly love our enemies.
People then did not understand ‘love’ and ‘hate’ in Jungian or Freudian psychological terms. They were internal states that had immediate connotations of corresponding external expressions.
The word ἀγαπάω (agapao) conveys ideas about welcoming others, entertaining them, seeking their better good, to be happy for them, to be content with the blessings they have received. Μισέω (miséo) means to hate in the sense of detesting.
To love our enemies does not mean to have romantic feelings for them, or to consider taking them out on dinner date, still less marrying them. It means to be attached to them, to be devoted to them, to be loyal to them, to seek their better good, to hope that they are treated fairly and justly. And to do that truly, our outward behaviour towards them must reflect our inner feelings.
Perhaps it would be easier merely to like them rather than to hope for the best for them.
But as Christ points out, God treats God’s enemies – the evil and the unrighteous – in the same as God treats God’s friends – the good and the righteous. Should we not do the same?
We are living in a world where the US President deploys special forces on the streets against his own people and thinks it better to indulge himself on his birthday in an ugly and vulgar display of cage fighting on the White House lawn rather than seeking justice, mercy and peace.
We live in a world where war is escalating hour by hour, as we seen in the Gulf, the Middle East, and in Russia and Ukraine.
We are living in a world where refugees and asylum seekers are dehumanised by the far-right and hateful crowds stirred up in rage on the streets for political gains and a handful of votes, where hostages have been held as bargaining tools, where starvation is used as a weapon of war, where a Republican politician suggested last year that it was a good idea to tar and feather the Governor of California only days before Democrat politicians were shot at home and on their doorsteps, where the Governor of Florida says it is legal for drivers to run over protesters with their cars, where a referee is barred from the US and taking part in the World Cup simply for no other obvious reason than he is black and African.
Wanting for our enemies what is the best for them in God’s eyes does not mean not praying to be defended against their evil, still less not wanting their downfall.
As the collect prays this week:
‘Lord, you have taught us
that all our doings without love are nothing worth:
send your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues …
If we are kind only to those we are close to, are we not simply repeating what those we hate also do? Where is the merit in doing that?
To be children of God is to be perfect enough.
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 16 June 2026):
In Pray with the World Church, the prayer diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), the theme this week, from 14 to 20 June 2026 (pp 10-11), is ‘Rooted in Compassion’. This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Ven Titus Oluwalusi, the Anglican Chaplain at Saint John’s Church in Casablanca, Morocco.
The USPG prayer diary today (Tuesday 16 June 2026) invites us to pray:
Gracious God, we thank you for the international congregation at Saint John’s, Casablanca. We pray that the church will be a place of welcome, hope, and community for all who attend.
The Collect:
Most merciful redeemer,
who gave to your bishop Richard a love of learning,
a zeal for souls and a devotion to the poor:
grant that, encouraged by his example,
we may know you more clearly,
love you more dearly,
and follow you more nearly,
day by day,
who with the Father and the Holy Spirit are alive and reign,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God, shepherd of your people,
whose servant Richard revealed the loving service of Christ
in his ministry as a pastor of your people:
by this eucharist in which we share
awaken within us the love of Christ
and keep us faithful to our Christian calling;
through him who laid down his life for us,
but is alive and reigns with you, now and for ever.
Yesterday’s Reflections
Continued Tomorrow
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
