Friends,
our Gospel today is taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It is one of
the puzzling texts in the New Testament. It speaks of loving our
enemies. Not tolerating them, or vaguely accepting them, but loving
them. When you hate your enemy, you confirm him as your enemy. But when
you love him in response to his hatred, you confuse and confound him,
taking away the very energy that feeds his hatred.
There
is a form of oriental martial arts called aikido. The idea of aikido is
to absorb the aggressive energy of your opponent, moving with it,
continually frustrating him until he comes to the point of realizing
that fighting is useless.
Some
have pointed out that there is a great deal of this in Jesus’ strategy
of nonviolence and love of the enemy. You creatively absorb the
aggression of your opponent, channeling it back against him, to show him
the futility of violence. So when someone insults you, send back a
compliment instead of an insult. When someone conspires against you,
work to help him.
The LORD said to Moses,
"Speak to the whole Israelite community and tell them:
Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy.
"You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart.
Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen,
do not incur sin because of him.
Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people.
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
I am the LORD."
Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand over your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
"You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
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