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From: 1 Corinthians 15:45-49

The Manner of the Resurrection of the Dead

[45] Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the
last Adam became a life-giving spirit. [46] But it is not the spiritual
which is first but the physical, and then the spiritual. [47] The first
man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven.
[48] As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is
the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. [49] Just as we have
borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the
man of heaven.

Commentary:

44-50. The Apostle develops what he has said about those who rise having
spiritual bodies--which might seem to be a self-contradictory notion.
Through descent from Adam, whose body was formed from the dust of the earth
(cf. Gen 2:7), men receive an earthly animal body which is destined to
perish; Christ, the new Adam, when he comes again will give his own a
heavenly body, perfect and immortal: "It is called a spiritual body," St
Augustine says, "not because it has become a spirit but because it is in
such a way subject to the spirit, to fit it for its heavenly abode, that
every kind of earthly weakness and imperfection is changed into a heavenly
permanence ("De Fide Et Symbolo", chap. VI).

Even in this present life the Christian should strive to reflect this image
of "the man of heaven", by reproducing in himself the life of Christ:
having died to sin through Baptism he has already been raised with Christ to
a new life (cf. Col 3:1-4). Christ's resurrection, St Thomas Aquinas
explains, "is an exemplary cause with regard to the resurrection of souls,
because even in our souls we must be conformed with the risen Christ, the
Apostle says (Rom 6:4-11): 'Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of
the Father, that we too might walk in newness of life [...]. Christ being
raised from the dead shall never die again [...] so you also must consider
yourselves dead to sin', so that you 'might live with him' (1 Thess 5:10)"
("Summa Theologiae", III, q. 56, a. 2).

45. Commenting on this verse, St John of Avila explains that "God created
the first man and blew into his face, he gave him the breath of life, and
he became a living being. "Et factus est primus Adam in animam viventem,
novissimus Adam in spiritum vivificantem" (1 Cor 15:45). The second Adam
was made, Jesus Christ, and not only was he given and did he have life for
himself like the first Adam, but he had it for many others. Christ has a
living spirit, a life-giving spirit which raises up those of us who desire
to live. Let us go to Christ, let us seek Christ, who has the breath of
life. No matter how evil you be, how lost, how disorientated, if you go to
him, if you seek him, he will make you well, he will win you over and set
you right and heal you" ("Sermon on Pentecost Sunday").

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

From: Luke 6:27-38

Love of Enemies

[27] "But I say to you that hear, Love your enemies, do good to those
who hate you, [28] bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse
you. [29] To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also;
and from him who takes away your cloak do not withhold your coat as
well. [30] Give to every one who begs from you; and of him who takes
away your goods do not ask them again. [31] And as you wish that men
would do to you, do so to them.

[32] "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For
even sinners love those who love them. [33] And if you do good to
those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners
do the same. [34] And if you lend to those from whom you hope to
receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to
receive as much again. [35] But love your enemies, and do good, and
lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and
you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and
the selfish. [36] Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.

[37] "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will
not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; [38] give, and it
will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together,
running over, will be put into your lap. For the measure you give will
be the measure you get back."

Commentary:

27. "In loving our enemies there shines forth in us some likeness to
God our Father, who, by the death of His Son, ransomed from everlasting
perdition and reconciled to Himself the human race, which previously
was most unfriendly and hostile to Him" ("St. Pius V Catechism", IV,
14, 19). Following the example of God our Father, we must desire for
everyone (even those who say they are our enemies) eternal life, in the
first place; additionally, a Christian has a duty to respect and
understand everyone without exception, because of his or her intrinsic
dignity as a human person, made in the image and likeness of the
Creator.

28. Jesus Christ teaches us by example that this is a real precept and
not just a pious recommendation; even when nailed to the cross He
prayed to His Father for those who had brought Him to such a pass:
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Lk 23:34). In
imitation of the Master, St Stephen, the first martyr of the Church,
when he was being stoned, prayed to our Lord not to hold the sin
against his persecutors (cf. Acts 7:60). In the liturgy of Good Friday
the Church offers prayers and suffrages to God on behalf of those
outside the Church, asking Him to give them the grace of faith; to
release from their ignorance those who do not know Him; to give Jews
the light to the truth; to bring non-Catholic Christians, linked by
true charity, into full communion with our Mother the Church.

29. Our Lord gives us more examples to show us how we should act if we
want to imitate the mercy of God. The first has to do with one of what
are traditionally called the "spiritual works of mercy"--forgiving
injuries and being patient with other people's defects. This is what
He means in the first instance about turning the other cheek.

To understand what our Lord is saying here, St. Thomas comments that
"Sacred Scripture needs to be understood in the light of the example of
Christ and the saints. Christ did not offer the cheek to be struck in
the house of Annas (Jn 18:22ff), nor did St. Paul when, as we are told
in the Acts of the Apostles, he was beaten in Philippi (Acts 16:22f).
Therefore, we should not take it that Christ literally meant that you
should offer the other cheek to some to hit you; what He was referring
to was your interior disposition; that is, if necessary we should be
ready not to be intolerant of anyone who hurts us, and we should be
ready to put up with this kind of treatment, or worse than that. That
was how the Lord acted when He surrendered His body to death"
("Commentary on St John", 18, 37).

36. The model of mercy which Christ sets before us is God Himself, of
whom St. Paul says, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us
in all our afflictions" (2 Cor 1:3-4). "The first quality of this
virtue", Fray Luis de Granada explains, "is that it makes men like God
and like the most glorious thing in Him, His mercy (Lk 6:36). For
certainly the greatest perfection a creature can have is to be like his
Creator, and the more like Him he is, the more perfect he is.
Certainly one of the things which is most appropriate to God is mercy,
which is what the Church means when it says that prayer: 'Lord God, to
whom it is proper to be merciful and forgiving...'. It says that this
is proper to God, because just as a creature, as creature, is
characteristically poor and needy (and therefore characteristically
receives and does not give), so, on the contrary, since God is
infinitely rich and powerful, to Him alone does it belong to give and
not to receive, and therefore it is appropriate for Him to be merciful
and forgiving" ("Book of Prayer and Meditation", third part, third
treatise).

This is the rule a Christian should apply: be compassionate towards
other people's afflictions as if they were one's own, and try to remedy
them. The Church spells out this rule by giving us a series of
corporal works of mercy (visiting and caring for the sick, giving food
to the hungry, drink to the thirsty...) and spiritual works of mercy
(teaching the ignorant, correcting the person who has erred, forgiving
injuries...): cf. "St Pius X Catechism", 944f.

We should also show understanding towards people who are in error:
"Love and courtesy of this kind should not, of course, make us
indifferent to truth and goodness. Love, in fact, impels the followers
of Christ to proclaim to all men the truth which saves. But we must
distinguish between the error (which must always be rejected) and the
person in error, who never loses his dignity as a person even though he
flounders amid false or inadequate religious ideas. God alone is the
judge and searcher of hearts; He forbids us to pass judgment on the
inner guilt of others" (Vatican II, "Gaudium Et Spes", 28).

38. We read in Sacred Scripture of the generosity of the widow of
Zarephath, whom God asked to give food to Elijah the prophet even
though she had very little left; He then rewarded her generosity by
constantly renewing her supply of meal and oil (1 kings 17:9ff). The
same sort of thing happened when the boy supplied the five loaves and
two fish which our Lord multiplied to feed a huge crowd of people (cf.
Jn 6:9)--a vivid example of what God does when we give Him whatever we
have, even if it does not amount to much.

God does not let Himself be outdone in generosity: "Go, generously and
like a child ask Him, 'What can You mean to give me when You ask me for
"this"?'" ([St] J. Escriva, "The Way", 153). However much we give God in
this life, He will give us more in life eternal.