The Evangelical Pope | Love Conquers Sin

Each week we let Saint Pope John Paul II share meaningful signposts to spark socio-economic resolves through justice and righteousness combined with mercy and compassion; in short, love.

               ^43-47 [Jesus says:] "You're familiar with the old written law, 'Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, 'Hate your enemy.'

               I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies.

               Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves.

               This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.

               If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that.

               Do you expect a medal if you simply say hello to those who greet you?

               Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that."

               __ Matthew 5: 43-47 (Message Translation MSG)

Saint Peter's Basilica, The Vatican, 30 November 1980 | Humanity will only become more human if we mold forgiveness into its moral face.

Forgiveness, which is present in the world, confirms that love is more vital than sin. Forgiveness is the first condition for reconciliation in God's relations with humankind and how people relate to each other.

A world without forgiveness would be a world of cold and irreverent justice, in the name of which each would assert their rights over the other.

Selfishness that slumbers in human society could turn into a system of oppression of the weakest by the strongest, a struggle of one against the other.

Excerpted from:

IOANNES PAULUS PP. II, DIVES IN MISERICORDIA, Saint Peter's Basilica, The Vatican, 30 November 1980

https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_30111980_dives-in-misericordia.html

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