Lets listen in on Johnny and Ronnie. “Mommy, Ronnie took my favorite truck.” Mommy replies, “Ronnie, give it back to him right now!” Ronnie says, “But he pushed me!” Mommy: “Johnny apologize to your brother, right now!” Johnny: “But he called me a bad name!” Mommy, addressing Ronnie, “Why did you call him a bad name?” And so, the scene continues until Mommy loses her cool and puts both of them in the corner.
Isn’t this what’s going on in the world right now? Conflicts over possessions, money, calling names? And, sad to say, it’s getting worse…more wars, more law suits, more political name-calling.
Going back to Johnny and Ronnie. What if Ronnie says, “I’m sorry Johnnie, here’s your truck back.” Or Johnnie says “I’m sorry I pushed you Ronnie; here, you can have my truck.” Or Ronnie says, “I didn’t mean to call you a bad name; I’m having a bad day and I guess I took it out on you.”
Little children and big children find it impossible to love their enemies. And yet Jesus tells his disciples to do just that (Luke 6:27-38).
“Love your enemies, do good to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.”
This is a hard pill to swallow. Respond to a curse with a blessing? Pray for those who confer violence on us or our families? Don’t retaliate when someone harms you or steals your possessions.
The pill gets even bigger to swallow:
“Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.”
Does Jesus really mean this? Or is he presenting an ideal that no human being can really look up to?
He explains why it is possible.
“…then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.”
Did we catch that? By loving our enemies as Jesus tells us our “reward will be great”! We will get a huge paycheck from God! Think of what people will do if you offer them enough money! And have you been to a church festival where the principal of the school sits on a swing and lets people throw a ball that causes them to fall into the water. The principal makes a fool of himself so people can have fun and make money. Imagine the size of God’s paycheck awaiting those who try to imitate Jesus! It will be great!
Also, we have the power to love our enemies only because we are God’s children and his power inside us. When we are baptized, we are adopted as children of God and Jesus began to live inside us. If our lives are built on this grace, we grow up in his love and have the power to do what Jesus did, including loving our enemies.
St. Paul explains this for us in today’s second reading (1 Corinthians 15:45-49).
“The first man, Adam, became a living being…the last Adam a life-giving spirit…The first man was from earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are heavenly.”
We are born into the Adam race. At baptism we are reborn into the Jesus race. We are no longer citizens of this earth, but citizens of heaven…
“We bear the image of the heavenly one.”
Heaven lives inside us! Jesus knew that his home was in heaven; so do we. In this context, the things of this earth—money, clothes, reputations—in the long run don’t mean that much. So why waste our time squabbling with our enemies, when it works out best all the way around to love them, and who knows they might want to become just like us, members of the Jesus race, children of God.
