This was specifically articulated by St. Paul in his Letter
to the Romans where he said: “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be
careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is
possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do
not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for
it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On
the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty,
give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning
coals on his head.” (Rom 12,17-20)
We have to try our best to erase whatever disbelief, doubt
or skepticism we can have as we consider this teaching, since most
likely, our first and spontaneous reaction to it would precisely be
those reactions. We can ask, even if done only interiorly, “Is Christ
really serious about this? Can this thing that Christ and St. Paul are
telling us, possible, doable?”
With God’s grace and our effort, let us learn to live with
unavoidable evil in this world. “Let them grow together until
harvest.” That was the answer of the master in one of the parables
about the kingdom of heaven. (cfr Mt 13,24-43) He was telling the
servants to let the weeds sown by his enemy to grow together with the
wheat. Pulling the weed out now would just endanger the wheat, he
reasoned out.
This parable is an image of how our life now, with all its
good and bad elements, is already the beginning of the kingdom of
heaven. We have to learn how to live in this condition, where evil is
unavoidable, without getting confused and lost.
The parable can tell us many things. For one, it seems to
tell us that we should be patient and tolerant of everybody,
especially of those who are clearly in error and are causing us some
trouble. In spite of how they are, they are still our brothers and
sisters, all children of God who have strayed from the right path and
are in need of help actually.
Remember the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, who was
cruelly sold by his own brothers but ended up becoming a leading man
in Egypt. (Gen 37 ff). When that dramatic moment came when he revealed
himself to his brothers, with magnanimity he forgave them and promised
to support them.
“You meant evil against me,” he told his brothers, “but God
meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept
alive.” (Gen 50,20)
By being God-like, we can turn evil things into something
that is good for all. We should try our best not to be dominated and
scandalized by evil. In another parable, Christ mentioned that the
kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three
measures of wheat flour until the whole batch was leavened. (Mt 13,33)
With this parable he tells very clearly that a little act of
goodness can have a tremendous leavening power to turn something flat
into something filled with goodness. We should just focus on doing
good, even if the circumstances around are unfavorable or even
hostile.
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