JUSTIN MARTYR:
We pray for you that you might experience the mercy of Christ. He instructed us to pray for our enemies, when he said, “Be kind and merciful, even as your heavenly Father is merciful.” We can observe that almighty God is kind and merciful, causing his sun to shine on the ungrateful and on the just and sending rain to both the holy and the evil. All of them, he has told us, he will judge.
AUGUSTINE:
The Christian soul understands how far removed he should be from theft of another’s goods when he realizes that failure to share his surplus with the needy is like to theft. The Lord says, “Give, and it shall be given to you. Forgive, and you shall be forgiven.” Let us graciously and fervently perform these two types of almsgiving, that is, giving and forgiving, for we in turn pray the Lord to give us good things and not to repay our evil deeds.