Word to the Wise
Tuesday, June 20, 2023 - 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 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. [Matthew]
Although the Mosaic Law demanded love of neighbor [Lev. 19:18], it did not demand hatred of one's enemy. The latter was a cultural and political attitude likely brought about by Israel's constant effort to maintain independence and identity. At the time of Jesus, the occupying power of the Roman Empire would have been the object of hatred. We can see the command of Jesus illustrated in the parable of the Good Samaritan in the Gospel According to Luke 10:25-37. There the lawyer who questions Jesus about the two greatest commandments of the law asks the question (in order to justify himself), "And who is my neighbor?"
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus notes that God's love is non-discriminatory. If we wish to be like God, we must also love indiscriminately, which may mean the person(s) we regard as an "enemy." Scripture scholars point out that this is truly the most unique teaching of Jesus. Do we find ourselves asking the lawyer's question? Do we have an "enemy" in our lives whom we find "impossible to love?" Do we ask a lot of questions of Jesus that begin with "What if.....?" If we want to "do the will of God" in our lives, we cannot simply choose the convenient and less demanding and ignore the difficult. AMEN