During what was known as ‘The Troubles’ in
northern Ireland, that time of guerilla warfare when the north was
riddled with tit-for-tat killings—British soldiers being shot,
Catholics and Protestants being shot—I was amazed every so often at
the bravery of parents who were interviewed after one of their
children had been shot dead because they were Catholic or
Protestant. Sometimes in those very interviews the parents
would say ‘We want no revenge, no retaliation. We forgive the
people who murdered our son/daughter.’ I think those
statements shocked people more than the murders themselves.
Much of the time people were ambushed and shot dead simply because
they were Catholic or Protestant, which gives you an idea of the kind
of evil at work behind such actions. I think anyone would understand
if these people’s parents wanted to look for
revenge, and yet quite a number did the opposite. It was a very
inspiring and hope-filling thing to hear. There is great
goodness in most people; in most people. When Catholic
churches were burnt to the ground, often Protestants would donate
money to help rebuild them, but you don’t hear those things on the
news. There is great goodness in most people.
Today we are presented with what is probably the most
difficult commandment that Jesus gave: ‘Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you.’ So far I have never met anyone
who wants to do this! Did Jesus really expect us to take that
literally? Maybe it was just a figurative way of speaking?
Jesus meant exactly what he said. Remember his own words when
he was dying on the cross, a death that was considered so brutal that
the Emperor Constantine eventually had it banned: ‘Father
forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.’ The
Lord does expect us to try and live this commandment, but how
we are to do it is the key thing. Essentially it comes down to
God’s power and strength at work within us, but that will only
happen if we remain close to God. That is also why Jesus gave
us the Eucharist, so that we can be intimately united to him every
day if we wish. That is where we get our strength from.
We continually read the Scriptures so that we are being formed in
God’s way of thinking and not just a worldly way of thinking.
Think of all the commercials, radio and TV programs,
newspapers, that we read each day. We spend a lot of time
feeding our mind with the values and thinking of the world around
us. But the ways of God are not the ways of the world.
They are quite different. Our culture tells us that we should
sue people and seek revenge if we feel we have been slighted.
There are so many commercials on TV encouraging us to sue people.
That’s not what God tells us to do. If we only love the
people around us that we normally love, then how are we different
from anyone else? That’s exactly what Jesus puts to us in
this Gospel. We are called to be different by the way we live
and think. If we do try and live this way, then we stand out
because we are different. Then we are the salt of the earth and
the yeast that makes the dough rise. We are small but we can
have a big difference on the world around us, just like those parents
who publicly said they forgave the people who killed their children.
I am sure it was their faith that enabled them to do that, because
that takes more than human strength.
This is why we have to keep going back to our
relationship with God. It is meant to be a real, living
relationship, as real as any relationship with another person.
As that relationship with Jesus grows then and only then does it
become possible to live this way, to see good in those around us,
even those who hurt us.
I want to finish with a short part of a very famous
speech given by Martin Luther King Jr which reflects this:
To our bitterest
opponents we say: We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering
by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your
physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, we
shall continue to love you… Throw us in jail, we shall still love
you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our
community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half-dead and
we shall still love you. One day we will win freedom, but not
only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and
conscience that we shall win you in the process. (Martin Luther King,
Strength to Love)
‘Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you.’
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