Forgive and love your enemy
Fr. Anthony Le
So my dear brothers and sisters, that was my father. Now as I look back I realize that being a good Catholic. Once upon a time, he wanted to be a priest also until he met my mom. he just wanted to he just wanted to imitate the one he called Master, Lord, and Savior Jesus. In today's gospel we all heard it clearly that our Lord wants you and I to imitate him, and therefore imitate the heavenly father. be merciful, be perfect, and the most difficult thing that he asked us to do is to love our enemies. not the kind of cozy affectionate love. no. the kind of love that goes to show our compassion, our desire for the good of the others, and that's this kind of love. and that love has to involve concrete action. Our Lord says clearly, it has to do with prayer, it has to do with forgiveness, it has to do with you and I make a bold commitment. By doing so, we imitate our heavenly father. think for a moment, and I consider my father to be a wise man. then, that is a practical thing to do to end the circle of violence, circle of hatred. imagine for a moment, my cousin went nuts ,hurting this man, putting his family. What about his relatives? What about other families? too. they're probably gonna take Vengeance against us. and my father did not want that. What if we kill him? what if we hurt him so badly that the rest of my cousin would get locked in or prison themselves, who would suffer. so it was a good decision to stop the circle of violence. and exactly what our Lord wants you and I to think about.
Why are we giving in to this hatred ? isn't that the world is bad enough because of that? imagine the world taking place between nations, imagine families, imagine us all holding Grudge, hatred, Harbor all of that bitterness and anger in our heart. and therefore we hurt ourselves first, by doing so, we trap ourselves in this prison of our own need for Revenge, Blood for Blood, eye for an eye. and now Lord's asking to stop it. To recognize it, make that determination, embracing the very difficult thing. the pain, the loss, due to things that others have done unto us. embrace it, carry it, and yet find a place in our heart to really move forward by ending that Circle of vengeance. vengeance belongs to God. so my dear brothers and sister, perhaps that is the first reason why, a practical reason why, we should not keep this hatred, anger, bitterness in our own heart.
The second more powerful reason to love our enemies, to show them compassion, is that we wanted to really imitate our Lord. look at him on the cross, look at him how he treated his own enemies. the people who crucified him, the people who plotted to kill him, the people who actually slander him, the people who ruined not only his reputation, but his own family, his own life as well, on the cross. and what did he do? What did he do? He cried out to the heavenly father: "Father forgive them for what they know not" he gathers all the strength he has left, and begs the father to not punish them, to not hold them accountable for what they have done unto me, but forgive them.
And our Lord knows nothing other than love and compassion and forgiveness. 這because he knows, he knows that we Are Not Angels, We are human beings. we got to learn like our Lord, Separate the sins committed and the person who committed those sins. sin, it has always been done wrong. hurting, killing, stealing, cheating, you name it, everything our Lord has named is always wrong no matter excuses. however the person who did it may not know fully, may not understand, maybe under influence of any kind. evil influence, bad habit, a culture he or she grew up with no not better way to do. so our Lord sees a human heart that we have the capacity to return. just like Paul, who killed Christian, who hunted Christian, who thought he did a good thing for God. Like Matthew, like Peter, like the rest of the Apostles, they're not angels. They were men with problems, with flaws. but our Lord see through them and that's the reason why, my dear brothers and sister, we should imitate him, because we don't want, we don't want to see people as the sins committed, we don't want to objectify people with that kind of punishment, because our Lord does not look at you and me in that way. so by stopping, realizing, that person by forgiving them, by forgiving others, the enemies, we showed them a way out. We showed them a way out of Their Own Prison, of their own condemnation. And by doing so, we open the Gate of Heaven not only for them and for us as well.
Our Lord has said clearly: if we don't forgive our brothers and sisters, heaven forgive us. we have that power, we have that power. Fascinating isn't it? the power to forgive, the power to Open the Gate of Heaven, the power to really help somebody return to the path of goodness and therefore salvation, belongs to you and to me. Our Lord has shared that with you and with me. so my brothers and sisters, exercise that power, while it's difficult and our Lord has asked us to make that effort. following God, following Christ, it's not an easy thing. It's hard and difficult. However, the end goal, the end destination it's awesome. It's awesome. For that reason, it makes sense that we learn to forgive from our heart, and we learn to pray, and we learn to exercise that power to forgive, to embrace our enemies in such a way that the world could be a better place. so my brothers and sisters, I believe we could do it.
Just like St. Paul has said, the spirit of God has been poured into our hearts. The Same Spirit has inspired our Lord to give up his life, The Same Spirit has extended the mercy of the heavenly father to All, The Same Spirit is in us. and we are his beloved children, we could do exactly like our Heavenly Father. Like Father Like Son, like father like daughter, and may God grant us such courage to do so.
宽恕与爱仇
20 年前，我哥哥在酒吧里为了小事与人发生冲突，在格斗中他的肩膀被砍伤。为了保护自己，右手也被劈成两半。最后他游过河保存了生命。感谢天主，活了下来。事后，我父亲和堂兄弟们都非常愤怒想要报复。我叔叔是城里臭名昭彰的流氓。堂兄弟们也都是帮派的头目。他们聚众将武器装满了面包车，准备好好的为他们的小表弟报仇。我父亲以前是一名军人。我看过他徒手与手持武器的人打架。他应对这类事情有些经验。他有几个方案：让堂兄们为此事疯狂的报复，或是提起诉讼经由法院来解决。但是他选了一条不同的路—他去拜访了那伤害我弟弟的母亲。谈话结束后，他决定不追究这件事，只收了五百块钱的医药费。后来他向我们解释为什么他要这样做。首先，这是位单亲妈妈，这个年轻人才二十多岁，人生才开始。如果表弟们报仇伤害他，或是经由诉讼把他送进监狱，他的前程ㄧ定会比现在更糟糕。所以他决定原谅他，给这年轻人再一次机会。
兄弟姐妹们，这就是我父亲。现在回想起来，我发现他是一个很好的天主教徒。他曾经想要当神父，但是他遇到了我妈妈。他所做的选择就是从他的导师，救主耶稣那儿学来的。在今天的福音中，主耶稣清楚的告诉我们要效法天父变得更仁慈，更完美。耶稣的要求最困难的就是要爱我们的敌人。天父的爱不是那种狭意的情爱。不是的。耶稣要我们在爱中表现出同情心，渴望满全别人的福祉。这种爱必须有具体的行动。耶稣的爱与祈祷和宽赦有关。他要你和我做出效法天父的承诺。我父亲是一个聪明的人，他采取了行动来结束暴力和仇恨的循环。这是一件确实可行的选择。想想看，如果堂兄们伤害了这个人和他的家人。那么他们的亲戚呢？还有其他与他有关的家庭呢？他们也可能对我们进行报复。父亲不希望这件事演变成这样子。万ㄧ我们杀了他，或使他受到重大的伤害使我的表弟们被关入牢房，那么到底是谁会继续受苦呢？所以停止暴力的循环是一个很好的决定。这正是主耶稣要我们做的。
我为什么会屈服于仇恨之下呢？看看这个世界是多么的糟糕。在国家，家庭，和所有人之间都怀恨在心。我们将所有的痛苦和愤怒都埋藏在心里，它伤害了自己，将我们困在报复、以血还血、以眼还眼的牢笼中。天主不要我们继续受束缚，所以祂要我们下定决心做一件非常困难的事—爱仇。如果他人伤害了我们，天主要我们在心中找到一个地方来拥抱和携带这些痛苦和愤怒，用结束复仇循环的行动来解放束缚向前迈进。不要忘记：复仇是天主的事。兄弟姐妹们，要把仇恨、愤怒和痛苦从你的心中解放出去。
第二个要爱仇的原因是：我们要效法救主耶稣。看看在十字架上的耶稣是如何对待祂的敌人。那些诽谤祂，密谋杀害祂，将祂钉在十字架上的人。这些人摧毁了耶稣的名声，毁了祂家，最后又取了祂的生命。在十字架上耶稣向天父呼求：“父啊，原谅他们吧，他们不知道自己做了什么“。耶稣用了他生命的最后力量，求天父不要惩罚陷害祂的人，求天主原谅他们。
主耶稣就是爱、怜悯和宽恕。他知道我们不是天使，我们是凡人。就向主耶稣ㄧ样，我们要将罪，和犯罪的人分开。罪，就是错的。伤害、杀戮、偷窃、欺骗，不管怎么说，都是错的。但是那个犯罪的人在犯罪时可能并不了解他做了些什么事，他可能受到外来的影响，譬如：邪恶的影响，坏习惯，成长过程中错误的教导，等等，不知道他犯了罪。耶稣总是给每一个犯罪的人悔改的机会。圣保禄追捕杀害基督徒却以为他是在为天行道。圣玛窦，圣伯多禄，和其他门徒们都不是无罪的天使。他们都有问题、有缺陷。但是主耶稣看穿了他们，给了他们悔改的机会。让我们效法主不以罪来论断犯罪的人，因为主并不是这样的眼光来看待我们。因此我们必须原谅得罪我们的人，原谅其他的人，也原谅我们的敌人。让他们走出内心罪恶的监禁、摆脱那无止境的自责。这样子，我们不仅为他人，也为自己打开了天堂之门。
主很清楚的告诉我们：如果你不宽恕自己的兄弟姊妹，你就进不了天国。宽恕的力量是如此的强大，它可以开天堂的门，帮人走善良的路得到天主的救赎。主给了我们宽恕的能力，让我们努力跟随天主来学习基督的宽恕。学习如何祈祷，如何用宽恕来拥抱敌人，使世界变得更美好。兄弟姐妹们，我们可以做得到。
圣保禄说，圣神已经浇灌在我们的心中。圣神启发了主耶稣以牺牲自己的生命来宽恕我们的罪债。圣神已将天父的慈悲赐给所有的人，圣神也就在我们的心中。我们是天主心爱的子女，可以从天父那里学到宽恕。有其父必有其子，必有其女，愿天主赐予我们宽恕的勇气。