Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 19, 2007 - Eleventh Tuesday in Ordinary Time
[2 Corinthians 9:1-9 and Matthew 5:43-48]But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you ay 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 unjust.
The measure of love in the teaching of Jesus is "disinterested" love - a love that does not require mutuality to be effective! It is expressed in the command to love one's enemies since God loves all people and we are called to love as God loves. This is one of the unique features of Jesus' teaching that distinguishes him from Jewish biblical teaching of his time and earlier. Given the example of the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel of Luke, we might ask a different question: "Who is my enemy?" It is common in human behavior to "demonize" an adversary, whether it be in military matters or athletic contests. The reasoning behind this is that hatred makes it easier to destroy an enemy. Whom do we personally demonize or see as a threat to us? As soon as we can identify that person or persons (or even a collection of persons) we should take Jesus' teaching to heart. In many ways, it is only by increasing this way of loving that we will ever have a lasting peace. AMEN
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