(Tuesday, June 16)
Our country seems to be overrun with hate. There are those who hate the president. Then there are those who hate those who hate the president. There are racists, and there are those who hate racists—then those who hate those who hate racists. What will stop this pandemic of hate?
The answer is in today’s gospel reading (Matthew 5:43-48).
“Jesus said: ‘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, that you may be children of your heavenly Father…”
What would happen if everyone who hates the president begins to love him, and if everyone who hates racists begins to pray earnestly for them?
Jesus explained that we are to do this because that is the way our Father is.
“…for he makes the sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?”
The devil’s children are nice to each other. God’s children try to be like their Father. When the sun comes up in the morning, does an angel go through the neighborhood placing a cloud over bad people’s homes so they do not benefit from God’s sun, and when it rains does an angel put an umbrella over the gardens of the bad people so they won’t get any of God’s rain? God’s love is not selective. He pours it out upon all people, even his worst enemies. Who knows, by being immersed daily in God’s love, the worst sinner might begin to change his ways.
Jesus summarizes this teaching by saying,
“So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Be perfect? Come on God that is a tall order. Before we reject this idea, let’s consider Jesus’ definition of perfect. Remember the Pharisees were “perfect”—they kept all the laws, they did the right things, they (at least in their minds) stayed out of sin. This is not what Jesus is talking about. “Perfect” means to let the sunshine of God’s love in us shine on everyone. “Perfect” means to let the rain of our prayers fall on everyone—including our enemies. Our heavenly Father is not selective in his love; neither are we to be. Remember Jesus went so far as to die for us when we were yet sinners.
Naturally speaking it is impossible to love an enemy; our feelings of hate get in the way. Naturally speaking it is impossible to pray blessings on people who persecute us. What makes it possible to do as Jesus said, is that he himself, by the power of the Holy Spirit, lives within us. It is not us, but the risen Jesus within us, doing the loving and praying.
Isn’t this the power of the Eucharist? When we eat the flesh of Jesus and drink his blood, he literally gets inside us. A process of inner transformation begins, so that Jesus takes root in us. Our natural selves are overcome by the supernatural life of Jesus Christ, and we begin to have new power—a power to be able to love even our worst enemies.
Jesus is the only solution to hatred. His love working through us is God’s plan for overcoming the world and establishing his Kingdom of God on earth.
“Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34).
