This is perhaps the most radical word of the Gospel. To love those who love us, everyone does that. Jesus goes further, to the unthinkable: to love the one who wishes you harm.
To love your enemy is not to approve what he does, nor to deny the wound. It is to refuse to let his hatred have the last word — over him, and above all over you.
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
Matthew 5:44
Jesus adds a concrete door: “pray for them.” It is hard to keep hating someone you carry before God. Prayer first disarms the one who prays.
You cannot command your heart to love. But you can begin by praying — a name, a sentence. And let God do in you what you cannot produce alone.