Sunday Inbox Inspirations
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Cycle A
February 19, 2023
Love and Pray for Enemies
So, we are to love and pray for Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and maybe others.
I think we would call these countries our enemies, enemies of the United States. And we are to love and pray for these countries not just in the abstract, but personally – for their leaders and their people.
We are to lift them up to God in prayer. And in prayer, we are also to try to deal with our feelings of hostility toward them.
And we are to do the same thing in our personal lives with those whom we see as enemies, people who don’t like us or are offensive toward us. We are to love and pray for them too.
The Teaching
As if that isn’t enough, Jesus tells us to offer no resistance to one who is evil.
He uses three examples. The first is that if someone smacks you in the face, don’t smack back.
Instead, turn and let the person smack you on the other side of your face too. Oh really?
The second example is if someone steals your sweater, offer him your cap too. Oh really?
And the third example is that if a Roman soldier requires you to carry his equipment for one mile – and the Roman law allowed this at that time – then offer to carry it an extra mile. Again, really?
To go back to where his lesson started, Jesus says to offer no resistance to the evil one. I have to say that there is some exaggeration here to make a point.
It’s something like Jesus’ exaggeration when he says to pluck out your eye or cut off your arm if it’s a source of sin. He doesn’t really want us to do that.
But he is making the absolute point that we are to do whatever possible to avoid sin and follow his way. I think something similar is going on here.
Jesus is not saying: don’t protect yourself. And he is not saying: be a doormat.
But he is saying: realize that just returning evil for evil does not resolve the problem. In fact, it will continue the spiral of evil.
So, we need to explore ways of connecting with those who harm us. We need to explore common ground and try non-violent, peace-making solutions to differences.
In the long run, this will be the only way to resolve things. And that is why Jesus even tells us, to go back to where I began, to love and pray for our enemies.
The Result
Jesus concludes by telling us the result of our trying to do this.
He says: “We will be children of our heavenly Father, who makes his sun rise on the bad and good.” In other words, we as God’s children will grow to become more and more like God himself, in whose image we are made.
This will be the way to become more God-like persons. That’s my take on today’s challenging teaching.
No comments:
Post a Comment