St. Paul the Apostle

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out many of his basic life teachings. Several of them are extraordinarily difficult for us to understand, much less put into practice. Two of these are the famous "turn the other cheek" and "love your enemy" admonitions. To understand what Jesus is saying and what it means to us today, we first need to understand the context in which Jesus is speaking.

“Love your enemies… pray for those who persecute you…” Challenging words! If we embrace them, they empower us to become non-violence’s disciples; they energize us to become peace’s instruments; and they animate us to become reconciliation’s channels. But humanly speaking, the moment we hear those words, we instantly and vehemently snub them. We might be roaring: “Are you crazy? How can I love someone who murdered my family? How can I pray for someone who betrayed me, who destroyed my honor, and who hated me so much? IMPOSSIBLE!”