Mt 5:38-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
“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, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
A tough challenge; a guaranteed help
No matter how many times I hear these famously challenging moral norms – turn the other cheek and love your enemies – I never succeed in living them fully. I always seem to be harboring resentment or subconsciously scapegoating someone. If you were to take an honest look within, you probably could generate your own list of “enemies”, be they former friends, believers of different faith traditions, people who annoy you, or those with opposing political views, to name a few.
Over the centuries, Christians have tried to reinterpret Jesus’ words to remove their original sting. But no matter how we cut it, it’s clear that Jesus is calling us to love those we don’t like. The gospel writer uses the Greek word agape, the self-giving, God-like form of love. This is the kind of love that St. Ignatius captures in his pithy insight, “love is shown more in deeds than in words” (Spiritual Exercises #230). We’re supposed to love our enemies in our actions, not just feel benevolence toward them.
It is a tall order. Yet another pearl of wisdom from the Spiritual Exercises sets me in the right direction. In the prayer commonly called the Contemplation to Attain Divine Love, Ignatius tells us to pray for “an intimate knowledge of all the goods which God lovingly shares with me.”
You’ve likely been told “God loves you” for as long as you can remember. But are you in touch with it? Do you have a here-and-now, intimate awareness of God’s generous and no-strings-attached love? I’m convinced that only when I’m plugged into this divine love is there any possibility of me loving my enemy. The more that I am conscious of the free gift of God’s mercy, the more I find the willingness to love freely.
—Aaron Pierre, SJ, is a Jesuit scholastic of the Midwest Province. He is in his final semester of studying theology at the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University and is anticipating ordination to the priesthood in June.
Prayer
God of mercy and love, I struggle to live up to your radical call to practice nonviolence and to love my enemies. Left to my own devices, I’ll keep rationalizing my anger and refreshing my list of resentments and conflicts. Let me know once again of your indescribable love – the love that makes me your child and all of humanity my sisters and brothers. God, keep me in touch with that love. Let me steep in it so that, having received it all for free, I might give it away for free too, even with those who I’d like to think don’t deserve it. Amen.
— Aaron Pierre, SJ