Love one another

This week’s response to Psalm 103 calls attention to a familiar theme of the Bible, “love.” “Love one another as I have loved you.” Such a claim affords great comfort and consolation in these times. God’s love for us as we love each other proves especially reassuring. The Bible talks a great deal about love, about God’s love for us and about the invitation to love in return. In 1 Jn 4:16 we hear that “God is love.” The passage called the “Great Commandment” summons us to “love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind” (Mt 22:37). And in the same passage, we are called “to love our neighbor as ourselves” (Mt 22:39). 

Still, a prolonged reflection upon this summons to “love one another as I have loved you” invites a commitment that makes a further demand upon us. It levels a challenge regarding the scope of our loving relationships. It calls for a self-examination as to exactly who “loving one another” includes. Indeed, loving those who love us is easy. In this Sunday’s Gospel reading, Jesus himself reflects that, “if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them” (Lk 6:32). But “loving one another” makes a particular demand upon us when it includes those who we find difficult to love or who disagree with us, or who we view not as “another” but as an “other.” Yet that is the invitation of the readings this week, “to love one another (both friends and foes) as I have loved you.” So just how inclusive must this love of one another be? Are we really called to love our enemies as Jesus teaches us in the opening of this Sunday’s Gospel reading?

In the first reading, we hear of King Saul’s animosity toward David. During the reign of Saul, David was a rising star that posed a threat to this king and his royal status. Riddled with jealousy and hatred toward David due to this young Israelite’s growing military prowess and his popularity among the people, Saul determined to put an end to David’s life. One night as Saul slept in camp with his army, David had the opportunity to kill Saul. But instead, he decided to spare the king’s life. 

What motivates such a change of heart and leads someone to choose not to retaliate but perhaps instead to practice compassion or even love, especially toward those who intend harm or actually do mistreat us? Paul’s letter to the Corinthians gives reason for exercising this kind of unconditional love for one another, a love so broadly defined as to include even our enemies. He reminds us that though we were born of dust, we are destined to be like Christ, born of heaven. As Jesus himself teaches us, being Christ-like includes not only doing good to those who love us but also to those who hate us, blessing not only those who bless us but also those who curse us and praying not only for those who treat us kindly but also for those who mistreat us. Indeed, the call to forgive will have to intervene at times and clear the path so love can prevail. Still, compassion, generosity and love must be extended to both those we call friends as well as those we deem as foes. There is no room for hate, mistreatment, or revenge of others in God’s household. The invitation to such Christ-like behavior characterizes the radicality and defines the very heart of Christian discipleship. 

So, what are the consequences of such Christ-like responses? We become agents of a potential transformation in the other. Turning the other cheek, handing over one’s tunic, or giving freely to another what does not belong to them does not impoverish us. Such gestures on the part of the Christian disciple actually afford moral agency to those often despised or dehumanized. A refusal to strike back or act with revenge may actually lift up those who perhaps have only known rejection, exclusion, or brokenness. Moreover, Jesus tells us that even his Father is “kind to the ungrateful and the wicked” (Lk 6.35). Thus, for our part, such gestures toward those we find difficult to love do even more. They align us with the divine benevolence which Psalmist assures us is always “kind and merciful” not only to “ungrateful and the wicked” but also to each and every one of us.