Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 15, 2021 - Tuesday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 8:1-9 and Matt 5:43-48]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 soun 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." [Matthew]
The Sermon on the Mount continues to challenge us. Jesus challenges us to "love your enemy." It might be a useful spiritual exercise, in light of Jesus' command, to sit down and make a list of those whom we regard as "enemies." The list might be a lot longer than we think, to our embarrassment! The great comics character, Pogo Possum, is often quoted: "We has met the enemy and they is us!" And there is the old expression, "He/she is his/her own worst enemy!" So maybe we should put ourselves on the list to begin with. Then there are "other people." Another great comics character from PEANUTS, Linus, is quoted as saying, "I love humanity. It's people I hate!" Well....who are the people we consider enemies - not only particular individuals, but whole classes of people in whatever categories we use: race, religion, sexual orientation, political opinions, etc. etc.?
When Jesus challenges us to "be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect," he is telling us to realize that God loves those enemies of ours just as God loves us!!! We are asked to be, as St. Paul says, "Imitators of God as God's dear children." The plain fact of the matter is that Christ died for our enemies just as he died for us! Can we imitate that in some small way? Nobody ever said it would be easy. Ask the Lord on the cross! Jesus asks us to be different from the "world" around us in the way we love. AMEN