For Love of Enemies

During Our Lord's discourse on the Beatitudes, He called all of us to "(l)ove your enemies and pray for those who persecute you" (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27 NRSV), adding, "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?" (Matthew 5:45-47 NRSV)

Even though many can see the sensibility and morality of this idea, to pray for our enemies, it is difficult for our mortal minds to fully grasp and implement. When a situation arises in which this concept could be applied, our flesh instantly calls up grudging anger and resentment towards those who hurt us, making it hard to resist. As we age, our will becoming constrained by the sins and pain we accumulate in our lives, we habituate these feelings. Our will weakens in resistance to them, and so when a new situation arises, we find it even harder to fight against our fleshly urges, even if we know and desire the right thing. Unlearning these habits can be a lifelong struggle, and begging for God's help and mercy for them is most difficult of all.

To our fleshly mind, praying for our enemies, asking God to forgive them, to help them and heal them, seems unjust. Why should someone who harms another person, who does something we normally strive with fear and trembling to never do, be given solace and consolation? Many take one of two roads in response to those who harm us: losing hope in God's justice and becoming bitter and hateful, or losing hope in God's love and becoming despaired and permissive. Both are extremes of a balance only God can perfectly straddle, but we are all called to do so as best we can.

The balance between extremes of mercy and justice is a task appointed to all people, particularly Christians, called to live as God has asked of us. We are to be forgiving, kind, compassionate, while simultaneously just, fair and objective. Anyone in an authoritative office, such as parent, teacher, judge or CEO, knows how tough it is to achieve this balance. Only one thing can motivate us to find and live by this balance, only one motivation true and pure enough to enflame our hearts towards God's will: love.

Meaning in life is determined by connections. Bread is meaningful as food; the fruit of nature; the work of human hands; a creation of God; the host of the Body of Christ. A car is meaningful as a tool to help humanity; as metal mined from the rock of the earth; and, ultimately, as a creation of God. Everything is connected to all else, and so is meaningful - but all meaning, in the end, all connections are sourced in God. He is the origin and giver of meaning. Outside the context of His love, Creation and purpose, all is meaningless and hollow.

Humanity lives by meaning. It is the inspiration for our continuation in life, for our choices and desires, and for our very existence. But there are many worldviews and activities humanity has created which separate us from our ultimate context within God's Creative love. Whether this be the reduction of materialism, disconnecting us from all meaning besides our base existence as matter; or purely economic systems such as communism and capitalism, where one's very worth and value as a human creature is determined by one's financial success and socio-economic status in society; or belief systems worshipping nature, where man is merely one relatively insignificant part of an infinite cosmological machine, our meaning determined by how well we fit in and abandon our individuality.

Made for God, the only thing in Creation made in His image and likeness, and destined for eternal and the fullness of life with Him, every human person possess immeasurable worth and dignity. This is our meaning. We are connected to one another, to nature, to angels and saints, and ultimately to God. To remove or distort any of these connections is to lessen or completely destroy the value and purpose of the human person. From this can only come a life of misery, dissatisfaction, confusion and despair. Without God, we continue to crave the satiation only God can give, the only Water to quench our thirst, and so we attempt to replace Him with insufficient, incomplete substitutes. The Enemy naturally rises to the occasion here, offering the poison of sin in a bright and beautiful wrapper, hailing it as the answer to all our questions and the satisfaction of all desire. And for a moment, we feel as if it is - until it wears off, and we are left with an even deeper hole within ourselves. This addiction to sin is never-ending, and all share in it to an extent. Only by recognizing and opening ourselves to Christ's saving love and certain hope can we receive the grace of peace and true satisfaction.

The uncountable, indiscernible depth of God's love for us and the dignity of being Children of God can be difficult to see and to remember, even about ourselves. On the surface, it seems as if all are islands floating separately along the river of life to the anticlimactic waterfall of death, no purpose, no hope, no higher concern for us. But God "so loved the world that He gave His only Son" (John 3:16 NRSV), gave His very life, that closest and most previous to Him - He came to Earth not "in the form of" a man, but born of a woman, born into a world full of sin and pain, yet without sin Himself. He suffered all that we suffer but more, taking on the full weight of our sins. He suffered more than any could suffer - and, to expand on the oft-said phrase, if only one person had been made by God and had fallen into sin, Christ would still have lived and died for just one. The love of God cannot be bound by our sins, our circumstances or anything else. His love is infinite and beyond all time and place, all things to all people (1 Corinthians 9:22), not respective of persons. Indeed, nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39)

If all human persons have this immeasurable dignity and worth, can it be changed or removed? Is it inalienable? Cannot great sins and evil act remove a person's dignity? No - nothing can separate us from the love of God, and this is the context by which we have our dignity. No amount of evil or sin can remove God's endless love for us and the intrinsic dignity this brings. Even people such as Hitler and Osama Bin Laden were within God's attention, within His love and His concern, even to their death. God never ceases desiring our salvation and happiness, no matter our sins. God is also just, of course - in His love, He will not let our sins be ignored. To allow us to choose sin and to never receive the due punishment is to be unfair and unkind to the person. Sadly, some choose to separate themselves fully from God, hating His love and offer of eternal life and thus opening the door to Hell, a fate God never desires but sometimes must give.

How can we, especially Christians, never pray for those who live evil lives? Not taking away the deep tragedy and horror of Representative Giffords' attempted murder, I have heard none ask for prayer for her aggressor. And not forgetting the evil Bin Laden has perpetrated, I have yet to hear any pray for him, or any of the thousands of terrorists, living and dead, who feel into the tragic confusion and hate of their lifestyle.

I pray that the example of now-Blessed Pope John Paul II the Great, who soon after his attempted assassination in 1989 visited his aggressor in prison, talked to him, consoled him, and above all, forgave him, leading to the young man's spiritual renewal, may evidence the true depth of love and mercy all are called to show to every single person, from conception to death, to all degrees of sinfulness, without exception.

"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" (Matthew 5:43-45 NRSV)