Loving enemies as mark of Christian perfection

THIS is what we can gather from that gospel episode (cfr. Mt 5,43-48) where Christ told his disciples: “You have heard that it has been said, Thou shall love thy neighbor, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” 

 And then he gave the reason for this incredible commandment by saying, “That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who makes his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and rains upon the unjust and the unjust.” Then, at the end, he concluded by saying, “Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

 As we can see, the love we ought to have for one another should have no boundaries, since it has to include our enemies. We are asked to love without keeping score. Everything has to be done gratuitously. And our love would be more perfect, more meritorious the more unlovable our enemy would be.

 Said another way, we can say that loving our enemies can only show how mature our faith is, how complete our discipleship to Christ is, and how we are more identified with God who created us as his image and likeness, sharers of his life and nature. 

 Loving our enemies is not merely a human moral improvement. Rather, it is a living participation in the divine manner of loving, shaping us into the likeness of God’s fatherly goodness. Loving our enemies, therefore, constitutes the perfection of charity. 

 Still, we have to clarify that we love our enemies for who they are, children of God as we are, and not for whatever evil or mistake they have done. 

 We just have to understand that we can only manage to love our enemies if we truly are with God through Christ in the Spirit. He, after all, is the source, the power and the pattern of how this kind of love can take place. 

 So, the challenge to face and the task to do is how to immerse ourselves in God, practically identifying ourselves with him, since we are meant to be his image and likeness. Our true and ultimate dignity and identity is that of being children of God. 

 In other words, the fullness and perfection of our humanity is when we finally become like God which can only take place in heaven. But while here on earth, we just have to do our best to pursue that ideal. 

 To be sure, on God’s part, all the means are already made available. We are already given the doctrine of our faith so we would know what right and wrong are in our earthly pilgrimage. We are given the sacraments, especially the Holy Eucharist, so we can truly be identified with Christ who is the pattern of our humanity. We have the Church and the accompaniment of angels, saints and holy people, etc. 

 On our part, we just have to learn to pray and to truly have a vital encounter with God, which is actually possible and doable, because God is already with us. Being our Creator who puts and keeps us in existence, he can never be absent from us. We just have to learn how to get in touch with him, for only then can we aspire to be in our ideal condition as man. 

 We have to understand that the commandment to love our enemies is due to the fact that we are meant to be truly one with God. And it is the fullness of love that can do that.

Not against, but beyond

THIS is about charity, the very essence of God. And as God’s image and likeness, we are supposed to also have this essence. It’s a charity that is not simply human and natural, but rather divine and supernatural. As such, it requires the very grace of God for us to have it. 

 But we have to understand that this charity that does not go against our human nature. It simply goes beyond it, purifying and elevating our human love to make it also divine. 

 This truth of our Christian faith is illustrated in that gospel episode where Christ spelled out how we have to love. “You have heard that it has been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth,” he said. “But I say to you not to resist evil: but if one strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him also the other; and if a man will contend with you in judgment, and take away your coat, let go your cloak also to him.” (Mt 5,38-40) 

 More than that, Christ also said, “And whosoever will force you one mile, go with him other two. Give to him that asks of you and from him who would borrow from you, turn not away.” (41-42) 

 It’s indeed a mind-blowing description of how our charity should be. We are asked not to retaliate from unregulated revenge while defending justice. We are directed toward patient endurance. 

 We are asked to train our heart to respond with mercy and self-giving, refusing to escalate when struck, giving more rather than grabbing back, being willing to endure inconvenience. 

 This is not, of course, about self-destruction for its own sake, but rather about self-restraint and mercy even while suffering injustice. That way, our response to injustice would not become another act of harm and would thereby end the cycle of counter-attacks. 

 We have to learn to overcome evil with good, a very intriguing part of Christian charity. Not only should we love our enemies, as Christ taught us, but we also need to drown evil with an abundance of good. 

 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 conditions. We can ask, even if done only interiorly, “Is Christ really serious about this? Can this thing that Christ is telling us, possible, doable?” 

 When these reactions come to us, it is time to remind ourselves that we just have to follow our faith that definitely contains a lot of mysteries and things supernatural that we are not expected to understand fully. Like Our Lady and all the saints, we should just believe and do what we are told because it is Christ who said so, and because it is the Church that teaches us so. 

 That’s what faith is all about. By believing first, then we can start to understand things that are hard to explain or articulate in human terms. As they say, that’s how the ball bounces. We should not waste time trying to understand everything at once or at the beginning. Let’s be game enough to go through some kind of adventure that, no matter how the outcome would be, we know that God is in control of everything. 

 We should just beg for God’s grace.

Christ wants us to be missionaries

THIS we can gather from what Christ himself said, practically begging us. “The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few,” he said. “Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest that he sends forth laborers into his harvest.” (Mt 9,37-38) 

 And after saying this, he called his twelve disciples together and gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manners of diseases, and all manner of infirmities. All this simply tells us that we would be properly equipped to carry out that mission work as long as we respond to his call. 

 We need to realize more deeply that Christ and us have the same mission. Since we are meant to be conformed to Christ, the pattern of our humanity and the savior of our damaged humanity, we also are meant to be involved in his mission. Christ treats us the same way he treats himself. 

 We have to be more aware of this truth about ourselves and try our best to act on it. To be an authentic Christian is not simply to be interested in one’s own sanctification. He also has to be involved in the sanctification of everyone. A Christian is at once interested in sanctifying himself and in sanctifying others and the world as well. 

 To be sure, if we have the proper Christian frame of mind, we know that every event, circumstance, situation and condition in our life is an occasion to carry out our mission work. Even when one is isolated for one reason or another, he still can do apostolate, because this duty is not limited to dealing with others in a direct, physical way. It can be done with prayers, sacrifices and intentions. Indeed, there is no moment in our life when we cannot do apostolate! 

 We also have to realize that our pursuit for sanctity cannot be genuine if it does not involve doing apostolate. In fact, the tasks of sanctification and apostolate mutually help each other. One cannot be without the other. 

 In this regard, it behooves all of us to immerse ourselves in the complexities of today’s life. Christian missionaries need not be priests and nuns, consecrated and religious people. Everyone should feel the duty to do missionary work. 

 Where the people are, we should also be there, tackling with everyone else the spiritual and moral challenges of the times, finding ways of sanctifying everything and leading everyone and the world to God. 

 We, of course, have to be properly trained and skilled in the ways of the spiritual and supernatural, on the one hand, and of the mundane and secular on the other. We have to learn how to blend the sacred things in life and the earthly and temporal elements. 

 This means that we have to be truly spiritual men, so vitally identified with Christ that we can take on anything without getting scandalized by the complexities and the unavoidable dirt of today’s challenges. 

 Obviously, we need a working spirituality that is fueled by a deep sense of commitment and love of God and souls, and nourished by an adequate plan or program of acts of piety. We indeed need to pray a lot, and be willing to make sacrifices and all kinds of self-denials, have recourse to the sacraments, continually develop the virtues and constantly sharpen their apostolic concern, etc. 

 We have to bring to life the guidelines that ultimately come from Christ and are expressed more concretely by the Church, especially in her social doctrine.