First Reading: 1 Samuel 26: 2, 7-9, 12-13,22-23
Psalm 103: 1-4, 8, 10, 12-13
Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 15: 45-49
Gospel: Luke 6: 27-38
The readings today invite us as sons and daughters of the Most-High to imitate God’s character. Since God’s mercy extends to all, including His enemies, our love should likewise extend to those who hurt us. In the first reading from the Book of Samuel, David had a golden opportunity to kill Saul who sought to kill him when God put Saul and his men to deep sleep, but he chooses to show mercy. Were the reverse to be the case, Saul would not have spared him. David understood that no matter how unjust Saul’s hatred against him was, Saul was anointed by God. By refusing to harm Saul, he shows that true strength lies not in vengeance or crushing the enemy but in forgiveness. In this behavior of David, we see a perfection that is proper to God as Father and anticipates what Jesus will expect to be the way of life of His followers – kindness and mercy towards those who hate us.
The Responsorial Psalm reminds us of God’s enduring love and mercy. He does not deal with us according to our sins nor does he repay us according to our iniquities. As far as the East is from the West, so far does He put our transgressions from us. True strength lies in forgiving and forgetting.
In the Gospel Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Can you really love your enemies? This is perhaps the most difficult teaching of Christ and defines the core of Christian ethics. The Old Law allowed “an eye for an eye” (Exodus 21:24), a principle designed to guarantee that revenge corresponds directly with offence. But Jesus is asking us to give up our right to get even. Why? Mahatma Gandhi explains it well, “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”
In a world wounded by sin, injustice and violence, there is an ever-widening spiral of hate and retaliation. Jesus is calling for a halt of the universal urge for retaliation or to get even. There is only one way to break this vicious circle; Jesus is demanding of His followers to absorb any hate or violence without returning it or passing it to others. This is what Jesus did on the cross when He forgave those who crucified Him. So, just as with the Beatitudes, by calling us to love our enemies, Jesus is not calling us to an ideal but to something He Himself embodied.
When Jesus said, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them,” Jesus is aiming at the minimalism of the ethics of ‘tit for tat’ like even the unbelievers do. He is calling us to a new and higher standard that is grounded on the character of God our Father who is kind to all: the just and the wicked and lets His sun to shine on both ethe just and the wicked. By loving our enemies, we become true sons and daughters of God who loved us while we were still sinners.
I would like to conclude with the story of Immaculée Ilibagiza, a 22 year old university student in Rwanda in the 1990s when violence broke our in her country of Rwanda. Hutus killed her parents, brothers and hundreds of her Tutsi friends. a Hutu pastor, who risked his life to save her, hid her and six other women in a small bathroom with a wooden wardrobe covering the door. For three months, they endured hunger, fear and the sound of soldiers constantly coming back to the house to search for Tutsis.
In that cramped bathroom, she began to pray the Rosary. She always stumbled over the Lord’s prayer – “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” She knew that the prayer called her to forgive those who had killed her family and endangered her. She didn’t think she could do it. She realized she was consumed by hate and was afraid she would become like the people who killed her family. In her mind, forging her killers was like forgiving the devil. Finally, afraid that her hate would crush her heart, she asked God to forgive those who had done her so much harm. Slowly with God’s help she was able to let go and forgive her family’s killers. Eventually, she even visited one of those who killed her brother in prison, taking his hand and offering forgiveness. She later said, forgiveness saved her life. “It is a new life, almost like a resurrection.”
Forgiveness saved her life from destruction. How many there are in our world today who are getting crushed by unforgiveness and resentment. Hate does more harm to the hater that to the hated. Forgiveness can save your life too. Jesus wants us to become “Davids” loving our enemies and doing good to those who hate us. But we are often like “Saul” – by our sinfulness and pride, we make ourselves enemies of God. But we have been spared a death we surely deserved to die because God has loved and showed mercy to His enemies, “the ungrateful and the wicked” as Jesus says. Grateful for the Lord’s love, kindness and mercy, let us also show love and mercy and kindness which does not discriminate.
Happy Sunday,
Fr Chidi Onwuka, m.ss.cc.