February 28, 2026
I Saturday of Lent
Fr. Antonino Milazzo
May the Lord give you peace,
I am Fr. Antonino Milazzo, guardian and delegate of the Custos for the Delegation of the Holy Land in Rome.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are in the season of Lent and as always the texts that the liturgy presents to us seek to help us in our journey of conversion and in trying to change our lives, our gaze toward God, toward our brothers and sisters and toward ourselves.
In today’s Gospel Jesus in fact invites us to take a step forward beyond what has been understood even regarding the commandments, one more step, the refrain we heard repeated was this, "you have heard that it was said to those of old, but I say to you".
The necessary premise before continuing our reflection is that Jesus does not place Himself in an attitude of rupture toward the law, He did not come to abolish it, but of continuity, leading man back to true justice and to the way and practice of love.
In today’s Gospel therefore we see specifically how Jesus positions Himself regarding the interpretation of the commandment "you shall love your neighbor" and hate your enemy. This text is not found in this exact form in the Old Testament, where however hatred toward the enemy is justified.
Jesus goes precisely against this hatred and seeks to uproot it at its root, marking the difference by saying, "if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what extraordinary thing are you doing? Do not even the pagans do the same?"
We are therefore faced with the attempt to raise the bar in order to reach a summit in our journey, while for the Jew love was confined to people belonging to the same race, the same religion and those of the same nationality, for the Christian it is not so, love must overflow and go beyond every limit including enmity. Jesus speaks of nonviolence, of praying for the one who persecutes you, who harms you, because prayer changes our heart and sets in motion processes of reconciliation and peace.
"You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect", since we are children of God created in His image and likeness, in order to live as such we must imitate Him in love, reaching that level of perfection, in fact He makes His sun rise on the just and on the unjust. And also the Way of the Cross that we meditate on in this time places us on a path of imitation of Jesus who gives proof of this love at the hour of His crucifixion, "Father forgive them because they do not know what they are doing". Jesus therefore does not urge us today to love the one who is similar to us, the Christian, but every brother and sister whom we meet on our path, friend or enemy, thief or brigand as Saint Francis would say, He invites us to take a step forward moving from the lower instincts, hatred, anger, revenge, murder, to the higher ones, love, mercy, reconciliation, peace.
Being perfect therefore is the invitation or rather the imperative that the Lord addresses to us today, seeking the good of all, loving all, as our heavenly Father loves and is perfection of love.
And am I capable of loving my enemies, praying for them, doing good to those who have harmed me?
Greetings from Rome.
