Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Plain Loving of Enemy

Friends, our Gospel today is taken from Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain in Luke. It is one of the more puzzling texts in the New Testament. It speaks of loving our enemies—not tolerating them, or vaguely accepting them, but loving them.
When you hate your enemy, you confirm him as your enemy. But when you love him in response to his hatred, you confuse and confound him, taking away the very energy that feeds his hatred.

There is a form of oriental martial arts called aikido. The idea of aikido is to absorb the aggressive energy of your opponent,
moving with it, continually frustrating him until he comes to the point of realizing that fighting is useless.

Some have pointed out that there is a great deal of this in Jesus’ strategy of nonviolence and love of the enemy.
You creatively absorb the aggression of your opponent, really using it against him, to show him the futility of violence. So when someone insults you, send back a compliment instead of an insult.

+++Jesus said to his disciples:
“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.
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.
Give to everyone who asks of you,
and from the one who takes what is
yours do not demand it back.
Do to others as you would have them
do to you.
For if you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners love those who love
them.
And if you do good to those who do
good to you,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners do the same.
If you lend money to those from whom
you expect repayment,
what credit is that to you?
Even sinners lend to sinners,
and get back the same amount.
But rather, love your enemies and do
good to them,
and lend expecting nothing back;
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.
Be merciful, just as your Father is
merciful.

“Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together,
shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
For the measure with which you
measure
will in return be measured out to
you.”+++

As Mother Teresa used to say, “God calls me to be faithful, not successful.” The first thing is to ask for faith by which we have access to the grace that empowers us to strive for holiness. It is the sincere quest for holiness by his children that pleases the heart of God. He doesn’t expect us to attain it all at once—or even that we completely attain it in this life— but only that we stay faithful to the journey.

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