You're listening to the I Pray with the Gospel Sunday Reflection on the St. Jose Maria Institute podcast.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me.

I adore you with profound reverence.

Ask her pardon from my sins and the grace to make this time a prayer fruitful.

My Immaculate Mother, St. Joseph, my Father and Lord,

my guardian angel, intercede for me.

The seventh Sunday in ordinary time.

A reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 5. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you,

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father,

who is in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

You, therefore, must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

All the moral evil in the world can be justified as a response to the previous offense.

How many times a child scolded for hitting his sister will

reply? You are right, mom. It's my fault. I'm sorry. How many times instead you hear? She started it.

That's how fights start. He pushed me. I pushed him. He pushed me. I pushed him a bit stronger.

Then he called me such and such, and I called him a bigger name.

Does this sound familiar?

Every fight is always started by the opponent.

But what matters here is not who starts, but who stops it.

A good Christian does it, because he or she breaks the escalation cycle. We stop hatred with

love. Many people get this teaching of our Lord wrong. They think that Jesus asked us to forgive our

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