“But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…”
(Matthew 5:44)
This is such a difficult
gospel. As Christians, we understand
that we are called to love our neighbor, but love our enemies? That is a tough commandment to follow at
times, but let me offer you some hope from some friends to the south who are
living out today’s gospel. Last Thursday
night, our church was overflowing with people who came to pray for peace in
Venezuela which has been dealing with unsettling violence over the last few
weeks. The Mass was celebrated by one of
my Venezuelan brother priests, and he did a beautiful job of directing the
people’s attention towards the gospel and maintained a beautiful atmosphere of
peace throughout the two hours that we spent in prayer. Yes, most if not all of those present have no
love lost for the government of their homeland who is suppressing freedoms, but
you could not feel any hatred during that Mass, only love for God and their
homeland. In regards to today’s gospel,
the morning of the Mass I was speaking to a Venezuelan friend who was telling
me that we must pray for those who were persecuting them and oppressing
them. I was not celebrating the Mass,
but prayers were offered for those in power so that they might always seek
justice and the common good. The
petition of my friend and the prayers offered at Mass were in harmony with the
message of Jesus in today’s gospel: “pray for those who persecute you (Matthew
5:44).”
As Christians, we must always seek
the higher ground. The word hate is
tossed around and used so often in our society.
We cannot have any room in our hearts for hate. What does hate accomplish? It definitely does not bring us closer to
God, and it does not solve any difference that we may have with those that may
be classified as “our enemies.” Instead
of hate, sow seeds of love. If those who
persecute us reject that love, we can rest easy knowing that we are doing God’s
will. A shining example of sowing love
in the face of hatred and oppression was seen in a moving video that went viral
this week of a Venezuelan young woman pleading with riot police to stand down
and join them because they all share the same blood of their homeland. She pleaded with them because she did not
want any more violence and tried to appeal to their hearts because she knew
that deep inside they did not want any more violence either because police were
being killed as well. This courageous
young woman stared down and pleaded with those stoic riot police and even
caught two of the women police officers crying under their helmets and face
shields. She could have easily been
arrested right there and probably beaten as we’ve seen done in so many
countries around the world, but she stood her ground and asked for unity and
harmony for her people. Not a word of hate
come out of her mouth, but the love and concern for those who were her “enemies”
is what made her witness so popular on the internet and an example of living
out today’s gospel.
Hate accomplishes
nothing. Jesus is calling us to
perfection as Christians. He is calling
us to holiness of life so that we may win over those who are consumed and
corrupted by hate. A holy army of love
is far more powerful than any army with weapons. We must live out this gospel of loving our
enemies so that we can become an army of saints. Pope Francis said this morning that “to be a
saint is not a luxury; it is necessary for the salvation of the world.” We want to save our world and our homelands? We must become saints! Bury hatred, love your enemies, and win them
over with love. This is what Christ did,
and all he did was win for us a glorious eternal homeland in heaven.
