January 29, 2007
Enemies
Who on earth would ever want to love a terrorist? Or hug a loaded suicide bomber? Who needs a friend or a relative when you’ve already got enemies like that?
On the other hand, that frequently enigmatic Paul said loving your enemy would heap coals of fire on his head. It’s a pleasant idea, but really, he ought to be ashamed. Maybe he was behind the door when Jesus said to love your enemies, and just plain to love them whatever the result, whatever the cost, certainly not with burning embers in mind — and certainly not to kill them.
Jesus loved his enemies. And look where it got him. Such behavior was not a very good example, but a very good excuse to skip that commandment, if, indeed, that’s what it was. He never seemed to qualify it that way. But, I regret to say, he did say it. And I take it that most of what he said or even what he was said to have said can certainly be considered to be rather important.
Father Emil at Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility up in Lake Wobegon was faced with a somewhat similar problem when the bishop ordered all parishes to pass the peace during the liturgy. It was not the sort of thing DNA-ed introverts cared much about doing anywhere, let alone in church of all places. So, like any respectable parish priest, he found a way. Pass the Peace, he told his flock, but you don’t have to make eye contact.
And remember, the kind of love Jesus talked about is not so much a feeling as it is a choice, maybe even an “act as if” and then stand back and see what happens.
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