Who springs to mind when he gives that teaching: “your enemy” For some of us that might mean one of the great global enemies of history: perhaps the September 11 hijackers or Hitler, Stalin, or Mao Tse-Tung, or perhaps your most reviled politician. Perhaps it’s a bit more personal, someone in your life who you just don’t like, who annoys you to no end, or someone who betrayed your trust or caused you harm.
Our first reading contains a pair of enemies, Saul and David. Saul had become deeply jealous of David and sought to kill him. Saul led his vast army to hunt down David and kill him. But in today’s reading, the tide is turned: David has snuck into Saul’s camp, and finds Saul asleep, unprotected, and at his most vulnerable. With a single thrust of his spear, David could kill Saul easily—this mad tyrant who was trying to kill him, unjustly, aggressively, out of insane jealousy. David has every right, you’d say, to kill Saul.What would you if your greatest enemy was delivered into your hands? Someone you hated, someone that hurt you, someone who has mocked you and made you feel inferior. What would you do if the tables were turned? David finds himself in this position. Now he was the one with the power, he was the one with the blade at his enemies throat. But he chooses not to strike, he breaks the cycle, he foreshadows the love of one’s enemy which Jesus teaches.
And Jesus’ admonition to love our enemies is central to his teaching. It is the great test. And when he says love, he’s not talking about an emotion or a feeling. Love is not a sentiment. Love is an act of the will, a choice to will the good of another, to work for the good of another. A parent loves their child when they work and sacrifice so that the child may grow and learn and become the person they are meant to be. Spouses love each other when they make sacrifices for the good of each other. A priest or religious loves the church when we sacrifice ourselves for the good.
To love one’s enemy is to will their good, and that is not easy. Why? Why is that hard? Sacrifice is hard, forgiveness is hard. Lending to those who cannot or will not pay you back is hard. Love makes one vulnerable and that is dangerous, that is scary.
Sometimes we find our enemies so threatening because they reveal truths about ourselves that are uncomfortable to face: that we’ve been hurt and want vengeance for our suffering. Or we see in them some hardness that exists also in ourselves. Why did the Pharisees hate Jesus? He revealed their hardness of heart. They sought to put to death the innocent one because his innocence exposed their corruption. He revealed their need to control, their addiction to fame. Our hatred of an enemy sometimes comes from our fear of having our own hypocrisy exposed. Our enemy is not fooled by our acting.
But if that’s the case, but if they reveal something unholy in us, learning to love one’s enemy is essential for becoming the people God made us to be. God wants to heal our brokenness and liberate us from our hardness of heart by teaching us to love our enemies. If someone, anyone exposes a lie that we tell ourselves, thanks be to God for them.
Another reason why love of enemies is central to the Christian way of life is that through love and patience and understanding and empathy we might win them back. By lending to someone who has no ability to pay us back we teach them something about God—we reflect the love of Jesus who died for sinners. Through our own act of mercy, we show that that mercy and love are possible—we show them the mercy of the Father.
For, as Christians, our task is to draw people in to the mystical body of Christ, to lead them to God. And if we write someone off, we judge them as irredeemable, if we say, they are too far gone, they are my enemy, and unworthy of my effort, then we are unfaithful to the mission of drawing all men to Christ.
It’s difficult to resist that tendency to become irrational with the irrational, to fight fire with fire, to meet short tempers with even shorter tempers, to write people off. But Christians are to break the cycle of hostility through patience, gentleness, and understanding. Our patience and generosity will often be the road on which God wishes to meet souls, to help them to know His goodness and love.
In just a week and a half we will begin the great season of Lent, the season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. Consider offering up your Lenten penances for someone who you consider an enemy: perhaps someone who has hurt you, or someone who you think is bringing ruin to the Church or to the world, and pray for them daily, fast for their conversion, beseech God for the ability to forgive them. Pray for the ability to love them with the gentle and patient heart of Jesus, that when you speak to them, you may do so with the utmost understanding, and that you may learn from them what God wants to teach you through them. Every day bring them to God. I guarantee, to do so will change you for the better.
Jesus deliver us from the unwillingness to love. Help us to pray, to fast, to do penance, to will the good in everyone, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us, to pray for those who mistreat us, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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