We love our enemies by realizing that they are not totally bad and that they are not beyond the reach of God's redemptive love.

Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, "Love your enemies." It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals.

By welcoming a marginalized person whose body is wounded and by welcoming the sinner whose soul is wounded, we put our credibility as Christians on the line. Let us always remember the words of Saint John of the Cross: "In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.

A soul which knows that it is loved, but does not itself love, betrays its sediment: its dregs come up.

Love does not see with the eyes, but with the soul.

There is no person that love cannot heal; there is no soul that love cannot save.