Two families were locked in a feud. The aggression between them escalated to such an extent that one family ended up killing the son of the other. The wronged family wanted revenge at all costs—a son for a son; there was no other way to satisfy their hunger for vengeance. Saint Gerard Majella managed to have a long conversation with the father, helping him understand that revenge was not good and that everything would only end up worse, and that no one truly wins in this way.
In the end, he succeeded in softening the father’s heart just enough to prevent him from committing the madness of killing a son from the other family. However, the mother did not approve of this change in her husband’s attitude and began to rekindle the fire of revenge within him. Showing him their son’s blood-stained clothes, she said: “Look at your son’s clothes. Look at them well, and then go make peace with your son’s murderers—if you even can.”
When Saint Gerard Majella learned that the family was once again planning revenge, he went to their house to speak with the couple, but it was in vain—they wanted revenge. Finally, Saint Gerard, who carried a rather large crucifix on his chest, knelt down, took his crucifix, placed it on the floor, and said to them: “Come and trample on the Crucified One.” The couple did not move. He repeated it two more times, but they still did not move.
Then the saint asked them: “What is this? You do not move? Know this: it is either one or the other—you either forgive or you trample on Our Lord; on Jesus, who gave us the commandment to forgive one another; on Him who, nailed to the cross, forgave His executioners. Decide whether you want to be with Christ or whether you want to trample on Him, because if you take revenge, it is as if you trample on Him.” Finally, the desire for revenge in both husband and wife gave way.
This is a beautiful example of how difficult—as well as important—it is to fulfill the commandment of love, and more precisely, the commandment to love our enemies. As Jesus said, whatever we do to our neighbor, we do to Him. Therefore, hatred—any hatred—is also hatred toward Jesus, not only toward our neighbor.
If we truly want to be Christians, we must treat our neighbor—every neighbor, those who do good to us and those who do evil, those who love us and those who hate us—with Christian charity, which is the mark of Jesus’ disciples. It is not necessary to go as far as the family in the story that wanted to kill the son of their enemies to fail in living what Jesus asks of us in today’s Gospel. It is enough simply to do evil—any evil—for the mere sake of doing evil. We must love everyone and do good to everyone. Using the words of Saint Paul, we should never let ourselves be overcome by evil, but rather we must overcome evil with good.
