Thursday Of the Twenty-Third Week In Ordinary Time
Agapē: Loving Even Those Who Hurt Us
Other Celebrations for this Day:
Liturgical Cycle: C | Lectionary Cycle: I
Introduction
Paul asks his Colossians to express in deeds the life they have received in baptism. The most precious gift they have received is love. Love binds into one in perfect harmony all the virtues they have received and also binds together all Christians as one people of God: they are now one body. They can sing out their love and gratitude to God in songs of thanksgiving.
Love does not rest on sympathies alone. A gospel-love, a love of faith, has no boundaries. One who loves gives more than asked and loves the “unlovable,” including enemies. It does not judge nor condemn, is always ready to be compassionate and forgiving. When we look at all these implications, we have to confess with shame that we are far from this ideal proposed us by our Lord. How far are we in this world the sign of God’s own love?
Opening Prayer
God our Father,
from whom all good things come
and for whom we live,
fill us with your own gratuitous love,
the one you have shown us in Jesus Christ.
Teach us to love and bless
even those who curse or maltreat us.
Indeed, deepen and widen our limited love,
make it without measure, like yours,
that we may be called sons and daughters
of you, the Most High, our Father,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
First Reading
Clothe yourselves, then, as is fitting for God’s chosen people, holy and beloved by him. Put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience
to bear with one another and forgive whenever there is an opportunity. As the Lord has forgiven you, forgive one another.
Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
May the peace of Christ overflow in your hearts; for this purpose, you were called to be one body. And be thankful.
Let the word of God dwell in you richly. Teach and admonish one another with wisdom. With thankful hearts, sing psalms, hymns, and spontaneous praise to God
And whatever you do or say, do it in the Name of Jesus the Lord, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Responsorial Psalm
R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise the LORD in his sanctuary,
praise him in the firmament of his strength.
Praise him for his mighty deeds,
praise him for his sovereign majesty.
R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise him with the blast of the trumpet,
praise him with lyre and harp,
Praise him with timbrel and dance,
praise him with strings and pipe.
R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Praise him with sounding cymbals,
praise him with clanging cymbals.
Let everything that has breath
praise the LORD! Alleluia.
R. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord!
Alleluia Verse
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
If we love one another,
God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel
I say to you who hear me:
Give to anyone who asks, and if someone has taken something from you, do not demand it back.
If you only lend when you expect to be repaid, what kind of grace do you have? For sinners also lend to sinners, expecting to get something back.
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend without expecting anything in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
give, and it will be given to you—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.
Prayers of the Faithful
– For all Christians, that our readiness to forgive and our constant quest for tolerance and peace may point to Christ and his gospel, we pray:
– For all who can hardly believe in forgiveness, for those who give others no opportunities, for those who keep holding grudges, for those blinded by hatred, that God may enrich them with his mercy, we pray:
– For our Christian communities, that we may hear the call of Jesus to do away with our division and selfishness, and that he may help us to overcome evil by goodness, we pray:
Prayer over the Gifts
God our Father,
you treat alike sinners and those who love you
with the bread and drink of joy of your Son.
All are invited, all are loved.
Help us to set the table of ourselves
to friend and foe alike,
to those we love and those we fear.
May this be our offering to you,
which you accept through your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Prayer after Communion
Compassionate Father,
through your Son you have asked us
in this eucharistic celebration
not to judge or condemn,
and even to grant generous pardon
to those whom we feel to have hurt us.
Let your Son Jesus Christ give us the capacity
to give without seeking repayment,
to claim no merit or credit,
but simply to love without boundaries,
as you have loved us in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Blessing
“If you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you? Love your enemies!” It is something very difficult to do, but it is at the core of Christianity. Let us ask the Lord for strength, for a Christian love deep enough to make us capable of this. May almighty God bless you, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Luke 6: 27-38
Agapē: Loving Even Those Who Hurt Us
The command to love our enemies is perhaps the most radical and demanding word that Jesus speaks. It is not a suggestion; it is at the heart of the Gospel. Yet to obey it, we must first understand what kind of love he is calling us to.
The Greek word used here is agapē—not the love of passion, nor even the affection we naturally feel for family and friends. Agapē means choosing the good of the other, even when they wrong us. It is not a love of sentiment but of the will, made possible by grace. We cannot force our hearts to feel tender affection toward those who hurt us, but we can decide, in Christ, never to wish them harm and always to desire their highest good. This is divine love.
Christian love is always active. It is not enough to say, “I will not do evil to you.” The Lord calls us further: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” The wisdom of the world would tell us the moral principle—do not harm. But Jesus commands something bigger—go out of your way to bless, to forgive, to serve. This is the “extra” of Christian life, the step beyond what is expected, the choice that reveals a heart transformed.
And why do we live this way? Because this is the way of God. He sends His rain on the just and the unjust. He embraces saint and sinner alike. If we love only those who love us, what is special in that? But if we love even our enemies, we become true children of the Father.
To love in this way is costly, sometimes painful. Yet in the end, it fills our hearts with the very joy of God. It makes us free. It makes us like Him.