by Fr. Tommy Lane
“Love your enemies” is, I suppose, the most challenging part of today’s Gospel (Matt 5:38-48). The earlier part of today’s Gospel about turning the other cheek was urging us not to take revenge. As regards loving our enemies, I have heard people say it is going too far. Since Jesus said to love our enemies, instead of saying it is going too far, I think we need to try to understand it.
It seems to me that when dealing with people who behave as our enemies, the first step is not to allow their negativity and toxicity to impinge on our self-image or attitude to ourselves. When someone spews negativity and toxic words on us, when they say negative things about us, I think it is important that we do not identify ourselves with their negative image of us. There are three opinions of us: God’s opinion of you, others’ opinion of you, and your opinion of yourself. The one that really matters is God’s opinion of you and it is important not to allow your opinion of yourself to be tarnished by the negativity of others.
I think it might be helpful to look in the Gospels at how Jesus reacted to his enemies. On occasion, Jesus maintained a healthy distance from his enemies. We read in John 7 that the Jews in Judea wanted to kill Jesus, so he didn’t go down to Judea but stayed up in Galilee. Later he went down to Jerusalem for a Jewish feast but went secretly, not openly (John 7:10). During that feast, people picked up stones to throw at Jesus, but he hid and went out of the temple area. (John 9:59) After Jesus raised Lazarus, we read that the Jewish leaders planned to kill Jesus, so he no longer went about in public but went to a town near the desert (John 11:53-54). So we see that Jesus put a distance between himself and the danger.
We also see Jesus speaking in his self-defense. During Jesus’ trial in the Gospel of John, one of the temple guards struck Jesus and Jesus said, “If I have spoken wrongly, testify to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike me?” (John 18:23) With this strategy we see Jesus deflecting the negativity back to the temple guard by asking him a question. Instead of Jesus having to defend himself, now the temple guard had to explain why he struck Jesus. Jesus responded to the negativity with a question defending himself.
We see various examples of Jesus loving his enemies. When Jesus was about to be arrested in Gethsemane, Peter cut off the right ear of the high priest’s servant. Jesus touched the servant’s ear and healed him (Luke 22:49-51). As Jesus was being nailed on the cross, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) Just as some people now say Jesus telling us to love our enemies is going too far, it seems that someone copying a manuscript of Luke’s Gospel early on also thought that was going too far because he omitted that line from the Gospel and as a result all manuscripts copying that one manuscript are also missing it. But we cannot pick and choose Jesus’ words.
Forgiveness is the highest form of love so when Jesus said to love our enemies, he is asking us to forgive them just as he did when they were crucifying him. If someone steps on our toes once, it is hopefully not difficult to forgive. The challenge is when it happens repeatedly, especially if they live with us or work with us or when the offence is severe. Then it can be challenging to forgive. That is when much prayer is necessary in order to be able to forgive. The greater the hurt, the more prayer is necessary in order to forgive. I think that is why Jesus said, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” because without prayer we would not be able to forgive them.
One person who only succeeded to forgive with the help of prayer is Mirjana Soldo who forgave Slobodan Milošević for the bloodshed and unimaginable horrors during the Yugoslav War in the 1990s. This is from her book My Heart will Triumph:
I knelt with the intention of praying for Milošević, and for the grace to see him as my brother instead of an enemy. I intended to pray that Milošević would see his errors and be moved to stop the bloodshed, but every time I said his name or thought about him, I was immediately repulsed and could not go on . . . I should have seen him as a fellow child of God, a son of Our Lady, and a brother of Jesus—albeit one who had wandered into darkness . . . I still could not bring myself to pray for Milošević and his many accomplices. (pages 263-264)
Many would argue that Milošević and his allies knew what they were doing, but I came to see it in a different way: if they did not know God, then in reality they knew nothing . . . Perhaps the fact that Milošević’s mother, father and uncle [had taken their own lives] when he was younger led to his indifference towards life, and maybe his atheism was a result of the communist education system. Does the blame for his conduct fall solely on him or on his environment, or on a combination of things, perhaps? Only God truly knows; only He can judge. But if life seemed meaningless and God did not exist for Milošević, then what incentive did he have to strive for goodness? In a classroom with an invisible teacher, would every child play nice? Thinking about Milošević in this way, my anger gradually turned into empathy, and my prayers became stronger. In the end, love prevailed and I was able to see Milošević as my brother in Jesus. I soon found it possible to pray for him with no ill feelings, and I asked God to help him find redemption. (page 275)
Jesus said, “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2023
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Seventh Sunday of Year A
Not “Eye for Eye” but “Love for Eye” 2020
Loving and Forgiving Enemies 2011
Related homilies: Homilies on forgiving others
Love one another just as I have loved You 2013
stories about reconciliation human forgiveness God’s mercy