“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly…and lend without any hope of return…You will have a great reward. Luke 6: 27-38
“God of mercy, may we not hesitate to forgive and seek forgiveness from one another. May we not allow hatred, distrust or hurt to keep us locked behind walls of anger or self-righteousness. Help us to be your ministers of reconciliation and peace of mind and heart.” (A prayer for this coming week)
In today’s gospel-reading, we are presented with a programme of action that follows from the list of beatitudes and woes enumerated by Jesus in the gospel of last Sunday. Of note today are the opening words that Luke attributed to Jesus as he addressed his disciples: “To those who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly” (Luke 6:27). This is not a set of instructions about how to formulate a plan for action. It is a code of conduct to follow in relating to those who get under our skin, upset us, do us violence in word and action.
To listen to anyone or anything is to pay close attention to whatever impacts on our auditory nervous system. We hear a multitude of things in the course of a day. We screen out much of what we hear, and listen closely to what we choose and what captures our attention. In today’s gospel we hear Jesus calling his disciples, us among them, to pay close attention to what is expected of us in dealing with those we are quick to label as repugnant, obnoxious, intent on doing us harm.
While today’s first reading from the Book of Samuel gives us a graphic illustration of how to treat enemies, in David’s heroic act of sparing the life of the king who was intent on killing him there is nothing to suggest that all of David’s enemies received the same kind of mercy and compassion. Was the way in which David spared the life of his king a one-off inspired act of heroism, motivated by the conviction that Saul was God’s anointed representative?
To come to terms with the imperatives that Jesus has put to us about dealing with our enemies, it is important to stop to consider the feelings we have towards those who treat us badly in word or action. More often than not, our first impulse is to label ourselves as victims and then to give our attention to how to pursue revenge and even the score. While these are understandable reactions, Jesus is telling those of us who are serious about sharing his mission that we are all sinners in need of God’s mercy, and that doing good to those who harm us is the only authentic way of identifying with him.
All this stops me in my tracks. It impels me to ask myself: “When was the last time I actually stopped and reminded myself that God actually loves those I believe have mistreated me? When did I last pray for those whom I have been quick to categorise as enemies? When have I stopped and reminded myself that, by labelling anyone as enemy, I have ventured into judging my brother or sister and have put myself on a pedestal, implying that I am better. Instead of pursuing others, I would surely be doing something more constructive by praying: “Oh, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
We know that Jesus found himself frustrated by religious figures who were intent on dismissing what he taught and labelling his compassion as breaches of the Sabbath observance. But this same Jesus prayed for them as he hung on the cross, a victim of their plotting and manipulation: “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” (Luke 23: 34).
If there has been anyone in our lifetime who had listened intently to today’s gospel-reading, it was Martin Luther King Jr. In 1964, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In his acceptance speech, he quoted from the First Letter of John:
“Let us love one another since love comes from God. Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences a relationship with God. The person who refuses to love does not know the first thing about God, because God is love. So, you can’t know God if you don’t love…If we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and God’s love becomes complete in us” (1 John 4: 7-12) King went on to say: “We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that/who have pursued this self-defeating path of hate. Love is the key to the solution of the problems of the world…I still have a personal faith that humankind will rise to the occasion and give new direction to an age drifting rapidly to its doom…In a dark, confused world, the kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of humankind.” These words are as relevant to us and our world now as they were in 1964.
However, we cannot afford to forget that, if new life is to be born, something in us must die. Today’s gospel-reading suggests that something has to die for the reign of God to become a reality. We will have to let go of our insistence on holding tightly to some of the attitudes and actions society has taught us. We have to learn to hold our lives and attitudes with a light grasp. We need to release the tight hold we have on our own space in our world, to let go of our reluctance to form new ways of relating to others, especially to those whom we are inclined to dismiss and even hate. We need to trust that newer and fuller life for us all is to be found beyond what we can comprehend and imagine. That explains why we have difficulty in trusting Jesus’ assertion that we will have to lose our lives in order to find them. And, doesn’t that explain why Jesus’ Gospel is so revolutionary?
