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Homily 24 February 2019

Seventh Sunday Ordinary Time Cycle C

Love your enemies.

Be merciful like the father.

Judge not, condemn not, forgive and give freely.

Today's readings, my brothers and sisters, ask of us that which does not come natural to us. Today's readings, especially that of the gospel, ask of us things which are difficult to consider,  much less do. But these words of Christ today, on this 7th Sunday of ordinary time - the beginning of lent just ten days away now - remind us of the commandment Christ also left with us: “Love one another as I have loved you.

We will see in the coming weeks exactly how Jesus loves us. We will watch as he dines first with his betrayer, then receives a kiss from him, almost as an affront to Christ's command to love one another.  We will also watch as his chosen one, Peter, instead of standing firm in his devotion to Christ, in his love for him, denies him three times. Finally, we will observe as the very people who had welcomed him into Jerusalem on one day, demand, insist upon, his crucifixion, his death, only days later. Christ will show us, as he hangs there dying, nailed to the cross, this love which he has for us. He will show us that love for those whom could easily have been called enemy.

So why did Christ command this of us? Why tell us to love our enemy, or do good to those who hate us? Why should we bless those who curse us,  or be merciful and forgiving. Well, first of all, in doing these things, we step out of our flawed human nature and, if only momentarily, we step into, we experience, the nature of the divine, the nature of true, agape love. For in this passage from Luke, when Christ tells us to love our enemy, he uses this strongest form of love - “agapate,” he says. We are commanded to love our enemy, not in a brotherly fashion, but in a manner unconditional and self sacrificing if need be. And in doing this, in loving our brothers, our enemies, this way, we ourselves experience what mercy truly is.

It is easy to strike back at those who strike us. But the psalmist today reminds us of how kind and merciful is our Lord. He does not deal with us according to our crimes for were he to do so we would reap the rewards of our sinful nature, which is none other than death. But God's mercy grants us the gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ Our Lord.

And thus this Mercy having been shown to us, so too, then, must we show this mercy to others.

Love your enemy.  The concept of loving an enemy, of doing good to those who hate you, could not have been any less alien in the time of Christ than it is now. But Christ shortly follows this statement with another just as profound. “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” Take a look at the Greek version of this text. The Greek translation for this word credit, charis, has another meaning. The more common usage of it and its derivatives is to speak of grace and blessing.

What credit is this to you? What grace, what blessing, is this to you?

Loving those who love us comes easy to us. But It also becomes something instinctual and it is perhaps not as deep as we would like to believe. Where is the grace, where is the blessing in this? Loving those who love us is many times an unconscious reciprocation, at other times it is an obligation we feel. Do not misunderstand nor negate the necessity of love. Love exists, but in its deepest sense, it moves away from that emotional realm of butterflies in the stomach and dreamy eyed stares into the heavens. Love in its deepest sense is a decision we make, not for our good, but for the good of the recipient of that love.

Again we return to our enemy. The loving of our enemy does not mean that we have to feel affection for him. In loving our enemy, we may not even like him. That is not a requirement to love. The love we are commanded to feel for our enemy, for those who curse us and persecute us, is that which seeks out good. When we love our enemy, we seek to restore justice. We seek to restore the dignity due to one. We seek to restore and rebuild relationships with people. But those relationships do not need to include liking. We love our enemy because he is a child of God, whether he believes this or adheres to this or not. We love him because when we look upon his face, we see the image and likeness of God.  We love him not because of who he is - a sinner just like us, perhaps not as bad - but we love him for what he is - a child of the most high - and what he can become - a reflection of Christ who loves his enemies. We consciously decide to love him because we seek out the good in him and seek out what is good for him. And in our showing love for him, we find mercy.

In today's first reading, we see mercy being shown for Saul by David. David, having been pursued by Saul for a considerable length of time, finds himself in a position to kill Saul. He refrains from doing so because he recognizes Saul as God's anointed one, even though he had fallen from God's graces. How many times in our lives have we been persecuted or harassed or ridiculed and hated? His many times have we had the opportunity to get even? How many times have we taken advantage of this opportunity? And how many times have we held fast and bitten our tongue?

The message that we receive from the gospel today is this: no matter how someone treats us, no matter how they may persecute us, no matter how they may use and abuse us, no matter what bad they do against us, we seek to do good to them, and we seek for them to come to conversion.  Our faith does not rely on their actions towards us. However, their conversion, their faith, may rely on our actions towards them. When we turn the other cheek, when we offer it after we have been struck, what is it exactly that we're saying? We are showing our love for someone by recognizing the dignity they have as a person.  We don't strike back but we do unto them as we wish for them to do unto us. We offer the other cheek to give them a chance to redeem themselves by not taking advantage of striking us on this one as well. And hopefully, they do not take that opportunity. That, though, is a chance we must take.

So we seek to interact with all our brothers and sisters in a way that is beneficial to them, even though it may not be for us.  We continue to do good to all especially those who seem to be our enemy. We do good to those who hate us, but we do more than just what's good.  We love them and we seek out God's love for them. We pray that they might be recipient of that love and they may be receive it willingly. We love them for they are children of God.  We love them for we know that they are anointed by God. As one of his chosen, we continue to do good in the face of evil. We continue to pray in the face of ridicule or hatred. We just have to remember that it is not about us.  Everything we do is focused on Christ. We follow his example. In doing so, our reward will be great.

So love your enemies, my brothers and sisters in Christ.

For doing so might just make them a friend.

May God bless you.

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