Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you
Leviticus
19:1-2,
1
Corinthians 3:16-23
Matthew
5:38-48
Our
Scriptures this Sunday bring us further along the road of Jesus' moral
teaching. This week the fundamental call
to love one another, in particular to "love
your enemies" and "to pray
for those who persecute you" present a great challenge to our natural
desire to get back at those who do us wrong.
It is a call to non-violence of which we have seen powerful examples in
history: the early Christian martyrs of our Church, Mahatma Ghandi, and in our
own country Martin Luther King have been historical examples of peaceful
protest, in the face of oppression and forced evil upon the innocent. Our present day peaceful marches for the
right to life are a perfect example of an application of Jesus’ teaching.
While we
may acquaint such events as acts of social justice, Jesus’ teaching applies to
our everyday lives, marching or not. Our
Lord was not so much a social activist with political ties but rather offers
all of humanity a new insight on how we are to live in this world. As followers of Christ, we have a particular
responsibility and opportunity to show the world what Jesus meant for all. His
call to act with non-violence in the face of evil is a powerful position to
take the higher road of love as a guide.
Yet it
brings up the question we may ask about how difficult and realistic this
teaching may be. How is it possible to
love your enemy; to turn the other cheek in the face of aggression? When we
feel we are criticized unfairly or our reputation is defamed or someone we care
about is harmed by another, our natural reaction is defensive with a desire to
seek revenge. So, am I supposed to be a door mat?
Then maybe
the most impossible demand: “Be perfect just
as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Come on now! I’m far from God’s
perfection. But, the real power here is that Jesus speaks about the love of God
and how to love as God loves. That is what should be made more perfect in us.
Maybe part
of the problem is that we don't really understand the meaning of the word “love.”
For
example, we throw the word "love" around in reference to many things
and use it in a multitude of casual conversations. We say we love
Italian food and then use the same word to say we love our pets who give us love
in return. Or you love your spouse or
a good friend or I love to go skiing
or I love my car or my cell
phone. I may say that I love this movie or this particular
song. I love to read. Children may say “I love you daddy” or “I love you mommy.”
And that’s just to name a few situations in which we spread the same word
around to describe how we feel about anything. That’s a lot of love!
A good example of what Jesus implies about love
may be in the Church's understanding of marital love. At the present time for very good reasons, we
Catholic priests are not allowed to hold weddings outside the Church. For those who request a wedding in a
vineyard, near the beach, or by a water fall, we say: "Beautiful place for
the reception but the wedding must take place in the sacred space of the
Church." Why?
Because
marital love is sacrificial and not based only on emotions and good
feelings. It's not about the show or the
destination it is about your love - your sacrificial commitment - to one
another and eventually within the context of your family and out to others.
The altar
has always been seen as the place of sacrifice.
So the Church says to the couple, "Bring your love to the altar and
join it with the sacrifice of Christ himself." To hold the wedding in a
sacred place of worship and prayer and before the altar of Christ is to
genuinely illustrate the commitment of husband and wife to one another and their continued life
in the Church.
Married love, then, is
called to become a kind of icon of sacrificial service in the same way that a
celibate priesthood is called to be an example of love that reaches out beyond
oneself. There is no better place to see
that connection than before the altar of God where sacrifice happens. However,
whether married or not we are all called to this heroic witness by Jesus who
clearly sets the bar very high for his followers.
My point
is that my "love" for Italian food is different than my
"love" of ministry in the Church.
Or husband and wife "love" each other differently than they
"love" their two dogs - at least let's hope so! So, Jesus’ word must
imply a qualitative difference in this fundamental teaching about love of
enemies.
So, when
Jesus says to "love your enemies
“is he implying that we must feel affection for them as you would for your
spouse, which is our popular understanding of love. In the case of our Lord, he
supports a non-violent response to violent action. We are not called to be door mats or
wimps. To love our enemies is to not
engage in an eye for an eye as we hear in our first reading from Leviticus. It is better to not seek retribution but to
illustrate for our "enemies" the value of forgiveness and
reconciliation.
It is
better and wiser to seek peace rather than to continue the evil perpetrated
upon me or others. It is right to stand up in the face of evil and respond with
ones integrity in tact rather than give in to dishonor or humiliation from
another. In the Middle East the virtue of honor was sacrosanct. To be humiliated and dishonored would be
shocking.
To “turn
the other cheek” is a way of saying that “I will not be overcome by your
insult.” Our Lord implies that even these acts of dishonor really mean nothing.
So, I respond with no ill will toward you; no eye for an eye which just
continues the round of aggressive behavior. Rather, I wish you no harm and
offer a hand of forgiveness.
What means
everything is the power to love peacefully. You can slap me on the face, take
my tunic, force me to walk the extra mile but it all really means nothing. What matters is the power of my witness and
the force of love to bring conversion.
My love must be universal and not selective. This is what must be perfected in us and if
so we have learned to love as God loves.
For
example, the martyrs of our Church are held in such high esteem because they
stood as witnesses to the higher truth of their faith rather than cower in
submission to aggression. While they
paid for this with their lives, their witness to this love only caused the
Church to grow all the more. My example
to the persecutors would be to show them a better way to behave. Not easy, for sure at
times, but the better way of Christ. This is the higher road to walk in which I
maintain my personal dignity which they tried to destroy and it is possible through the grace of God.
So, it is
that we put no limits on our love for others.
It’s not about how we may personally feel about them or their politics
or their opinions but rather that we are all brothers and sisters joined by a
common humanity. As God makes his rain to
fall on the just and the unjust, so too our honor and respect, our love for each
other, should have no limits
Is this
the road to perfection? Can we then be
perfect as our heavenly Father? Well, in
all truth conversion is a process, or course.
At St. Paul reminds us today, “you
belong to Christ.” Such high expectations
by Jesus are only ultimately possible through the grace of God given to us. We
know we are not perfect and will most likely never be so yet to enter the
process of embracing this way of reverence for others certainly offers us the
road map to achieve holiness before God.
In sharing
the Eucharist together we share in the love of Christ, his body and blood, poured out for us.
As we celebrate your mysteries, O Lord,
with the observance that is your due,
we humbly ask you,
that what we offer to the honor of your majesty
may profit us for salvation.
Through Christ Our Lord.
(Prayer over the Offerings)
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