A Reflection for Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
“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.” (Mt 5:43-45)
Find today’s readings here.
My wife and I were recently over for dinner with some friends who have two young children. Our friend invited the youngest, around 5 or 6, to say grace before we dug into our meal.
“Dear God: Bless my mom and dad, my grandma, my friends.” She is on a roll: “Bless so-and-so, bless my gymnastics coach,” she pauses, starting to lose her train of thought. “Well, bless pretty much everyone except for my enemy.”
We all chuckle while making the sign of the cross and grab our silverware, and our friend apologizes, saying, “We’re still working on it.”
Aren’t we all? And clearly, we have been for over 2,000 years.
Who are our enemies? My brain immediately associates the word with some kind of military foe. And while I’m not personally engaged in any active war, there are plenty going around for that to remain a potent example for our world. Maybe it is someone who has different politics than you? My colleague, Bill McCormick, S.J., recently wrote about how tempting it is—during an election year especially—to see my neighbor as my enemy.
Maybe it is an estranged family member, a former best friend, a coworker who has wronged you. As I’ve written previously, no one lacks examples of people who have wronged or disappointed them.
Pope Benedict XVI, speaking about this chapter from Matthew in an Angelus address in 2012, calls to mind that Jesus’ message about loving our enemies is the Magna Carta of Christian non-violence: “It does not consist in succumbing to evil, as a false interpretation of ‘turning the other cheek’ (cf. Lk 6:29) claims, but in responding to evil with good (cf. Rom 12:17-21) and thereby breaking the chain of injustice.”
If an enemy has wronged you, a first step to breaking the cycle of wrongdoing is to not return it. But Jesus obliges his followers to go further than ignoring a wrong by repairing the fracture.
A scene from the Broadway adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables (no, I have not yet tackled the novel) depicts what is being asked of us in a way that has always stuck with me. Jean Valjean, recently released from prison, is taken in for the night by a bishop. He gives him a warm meal and a bed for the night. In the middle of the night, Valjean steals silver from the bishop’s residence and flees, only to be caught by the police shortly after. Dragged back to the bishop’s residence by the authorities, the bishop covers for him, validating his story that the silver was a gift. In front of the police, the bishop tells Valjean:
But my friend, you left so early
Surely something slipped your mind
You forgot I gave these also
Would you leave the best behind?
In addition to what Valjean has already stolen, the bishop gives Valjean two candlesticks. His extraordinary act of mercy (on top of what he has already offered in hospitality) does more than keep Valjean out of prison; it spurs a conversion within Valjean, who feels the worth of his soul.
This is what I imagine Pope Benedict was getting at when he talked about this Gospel. It is extremely difficult to not respond to wrongdoing with more wrongdoing. Harder still to “turn the other cheek.” It is positively godlike to respond with an over-the-top love that overwhelms a soul with grace. Yet it is what we who follow Jesus are called to do, because we have been loved first by him.
