Bible Study, Prayer, and Homily Resources
by Fr. Tommy Lane
Today’s Gospel (Luke 6:27-38) is one that many people find difficult and challenging. It is not easy to live the words of Jesus in the Gospel: love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. When a priest preaches on these words of Jesus in the Gospel, people complain about the priest as if it were the priest himself who wrote the Gospel. The words are Jesus’ words, not the words of the priest.
Today’s Gospel, like last Sunday’s Gospel and next Sunday’s Gospel, is part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:20-49). Splitting up the Sermon on the Plain over three Sundays makes it more difficult to understand parts of it because we don’t see the bigger picture. The fourth beatitude we heard last Sunday (Luke 6:22) was about people being persecuted because of their faith in Jesus and mentioned four types of persecution: blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude, insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man (Luke 6:22). Today’s Gospel, following on from last Sunday’s, gives us four responses to religious persecution: love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. When they hate you because you are a follower of Jesus, love them back. When they exclude you because you are a follower of Jesus, do good to them. When they insult you because you are a follower of Jesus, bless them. When they denounce your name as evil because you are a follower of Jesus, pray for them.
Unfortunately there are many opportunities to live that beatitude in this country because there is a lot more religious persecution in this country than many people realize. Much of it occurs in families and is unknown because people are embarrassed to talk about it even to their friends. Being persecuted because of your faith in Jesus and your love for Jesus is a cross that you carry for Jesus. But continuing to be kind to those who persecute you shows that you are serious about your faith in Jesus and that you are serious about living your faith in Jesus in your day-to-day life.
Then in today’s Gospel, we hear lots about how to treat others. Perhaps we could say that one statement in the middle sums it up: do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31) This is often called the Golden Rule: do to others as you would like them to do to you. Jesus was not the first to give this advice—we find it in various kinds of writing in various parts of the world going back before Jesus. That is no surprise because it is, we might say, common sense to do to others as we would like them to do to us. But what is new in Jesus’ words is the motivation for how we treat others: be merciful just as your Father is merciful. Our heavenly Father is merciful, so we should be merciful.
Being merciful as our Father is merciful is the motivation to live the words of Jesus in the Gospel whether you take them to be about being persecuted for being a follower of Jesus or you take them to refer to any hurt or injustice you receive going through life: love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. If you go through life nurturing the hurts and wounds that others have caused you, you will be an unhappy person and controlled by those hurts or wounds. It would be much better to acknowledge the hurts and wounds but not be controlled by them. Jesus wants you to be free to love him without being controlled by what so-and-so did to you. Being merciful just as our Father in heaven is merciful is a better way to live because something is not eating up inside you. It doesn’t mean that you lie down under injustice, but it does mean that in the way you react you show yourself to be a follower of Jesus. No matter what persecution or injustice happens, Jesus wants you to be a follower of his in peace in the midst of it.
Forgiving is not the only topic in today’s Gospel. Jesus also said, “Stop judging and you will not be judged.” (Luke 6:37) From time-to-time people ask me about it because they find it confusing. When you see something evil or a lifestyle contrary to the Gospel, of course you can think in your mind that such and such is wrong, but we leave the judgment of the person’s soul to God. Jesus did see the faults in people but also saw their potential and challenged them to live to their potential as we see when he said to the sinner woman, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.” (John 8:11)
It is common sense to do to others as we would like them to do to us. But what is new in Jesus’ words is the motivation: be merciful just as your Father in heaven is merciful. No matter what persecution or injustice happens, Jesus wants you to be a follower of his in peace in the midst of it.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2025
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Seventh Sunday Year C
Forgiving 2019
Related Homilies: Homilies on forgiving others
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