"Love your enemies and do good to them, and lend without any hope of return. You will have a great reward, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked." - Luke 6: 27-38

“Love one another as I have loved you”, a quote said by God. “We love because he first loved us.”, 1 John 4:19. I admit, it is hard to love a person that destroys you the most. Especially if you need to love them for the sake of yourself or the one you love. I remember one time when my classmate since kindergarten made a mistake on me and broke my heart. Parang bang love life pero ganon siya, friends' life. She became one of my closest friend and I treated her as my sister, given the fact that I am an only child. Yet, hindi talaga natin masasabi na kung kaibigan kayo ngayon, kaibigan kayo hanggang sa huli. Yung tinuring mong kapatid at closest friend siya pa ang sisira ng pagmumukha mo sa lahat. Ang mga magaganda mong ginagawa ay binabaliktad sa lahat ng bagay sa mga kaklase at kaibigan mo. Pero eto ako, tao lang, kailangan magpatawad at magmahal, pinatawad ko siya. Kaso masasabi rin nating tao rin naman siya, ginawa niya ulit. So, dahil alam ko ang tama at ang tamang gawin upang hindi makakasala, siya ay pinatawad ko, minahal uli at kinalimutan nalang ang lahat. It is like in the situation given to us by Jesus to His disciples. If someone hates us, then love them. If someone mistreats us, then treat him/her right. If someone bashes us with hateful words, then bash him/her with love.

Not all the people will believe on and know us yet God alone. We cannot please everyone in this world. The 7 million people standing, sitting or leaving in this planet cannot see us positively. But God said that we need to be merciful, we need to stop condemning, we need to treat everyone freely and equally, and we need to love our enemies even if it hurts, even if it seems to be impossible. Let’s start to love ourselves before others, so that our enemies would love us also. If we want to be healed, so we must forgive and love. What was that again? FORGIVE and LOVE. To forgive is to forget. To forget is to love. So let us remember this two words, Forgive and Love.I admit that forgiving is not that easy as sitting down, watching television and knowing the updates on your favorite series but I guarantee you that after forgiving, happiness, joy, and gratefulness come in the end. You will not be judged if you make yourself true. Just like in a song, “Let Us Love One Another…”, one of the Family Encounter Songs, we just need to love one another. Just love and do not expect something in return. Just give and give and give and give and do not expect too much in return. Like also what Jesus said in the gospel, “Lend expecting nothing back; then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.”  In the eyes of our father we are equal, so all of us must do the same. Even though we can say we are sinners or not, then we must think the same.

Let me end this reflection with the introduction given by the companion in the gospel saying, “Love compels us to always find what is good in a person no matter what they may have done to us. This is difficult to do especially if we have been seriously abused. Because of our hurt, we may need to block any influence the abuser has on us so that we can move on and embrace life again. God wants to heal and free us from the effects of our sins and of those who hurt us.

- Jessa Canaynay