Love of Enemies

Dear Parishioners,

The focus of Jesus teaching was definitively on Love. First, he told us that the greatest commandment in the Law (Torah) was the Love of God: "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" [Jesus] said to him, "You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment." (Mt. 22: 36-38)

Then Jesus took a less prominent precept from the book of Leviticus (Lv. 19:18) and placed it beside the commandment to love God: "The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments." (Mt. 22: 39-40)

Most reasonable believers would find that this instruction makes sense. The difficulty that almost everyone would have with Jesus' teaching was when He took matters even further: "To you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Lk. 6: 27-28) Now He seems to be going too far, too extreme. How can I possible love an enemy?

Truth be told, it is not natural for anyone to accomplish this task. We would have to do something above and beyond that which we are normally capable as a human. We really can't accomplish such things without the aid of God's supernatural grace.

Throughout my lifetime I have encountered parents willing to forgive the person who raped and killed their daughter (Shannon Schieber), a Polish mother who forgave soldiers who brutally beat her son (Fr. Jerzy Popieluszko) to death, and a pope (St. John Paul II) who forgave his would-be-assassin. I read about how St. Maria Goretti forgave and prayed for the person who stabbed her to death. I also heard how Immaculee Ilibagiza survived the 1994 Rwandan genocide in her book Left to Tell and eventually forgave her family's killers. These and many other stories like theirs (from the time of the earliest Christian martyrs, including St. Stephen) show us all that what seems impossible from a human perspective can come to be with the supernatural grace of God.

Jesus showed us from the cross (see Lk. 23: 34) how He was willing to forgive those who put Him to death. Could He not also assist those who experience unbearable and unspeakable tragedies to find forgiveness, peace and healing? I hope and pray so. I have seen examples of it happening.

I also hope and pray that I may never have to face the tragic circumstances that others have had to because of war, crime, injustice or evil. The world is not fair and bad things happen to good people far too often. Jesus is the perfect example of that. Yet, He still challenges us to rise above the difficult and unfair circumstances of life and to continue to love despite it all.

Easy? Absolutely not.

Possible? All things are possible with God's grace.

Fr. Ed Namiotka

Pastor