“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.” (Mt 5:38-48) Do I love the terrorists who piloted those three planes 10 years ago? Do I pray for them and those who would be like them?
Do I love the radical suicide bombers in Afghanistan and Iraq? In Israel or London? Have I ever prayed for them?
Do I love the abortion doctor or the mother who used his or her services and do I pray for them?
Have I ever prayed for the politician who makes decisions I see as ruinous or anti-American? Do I love him or her?
These were hard words for me when I heard them this morning and set me to some serious reflection about my own hypocrisy. Angry demonstrators are screaming at each other in Madison. TV personalities are calling their political adversaries evil. Political discourse in this country is dominated by hyperbole and lies instead of honest debate. And the anger grows and grows. It makes me wonder what the atmosphere in the country felt like in 1860 leading up to the Civil War?
Before today I can’t say that I ever prayed for Osama Bin Laden, or Mohammed Attah. I haven’t prayed for Sarah Palin or John Boehner or Florida Governor Rick Scott. Can I honestly say I love them? And, what does that mean? Should I compromise on my closest held values because I love my adversary? If I love Osama Bin Laden does that mean I don’t want him hunted down and brought to justice? If I love the mother who just terminated her pregnancy does that mean I think her abortion was right? Does it mean I think the doctor acted morally? What does it really mean to say I love my enemy?
I, for one, don’t know the answers to these deeply personal questions. And as I look around at friends and family I don’t see too many people even asking these questions. We all seem to be too busy feeling angry and shouting. I know I have been. That’s why this reading from Matthew struck me so strongly this morning. Though I don’t know the answers, I don’t think it means that we all become pacifists or surrender to our adversaries and enemies. Also in Matthew Jesus was quoted as saying "Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.” But when his time of death came he didn’t summon legions of angels to wipe the high priests and Pharisees from the face of the earth as he easily could have. He walked humbly to his death carrying his own cross in order to save many of the very same people who shouted “crucify him” the night before. Would I likewise die for Osama bin Laden? Would I die to save an abortion doctor? Could I actually do that?
I know it’s human to be angry and hate. But it’s not divine.
Image by Narayan Mahon for The New York Times
