Lk 6,27-38 (7 Ord.
C)
Significance. – Given the conciseness of the whole Sermon on the Plain (30 vv.) If we compare with Mt’s version of the Sermon on the Mount (107 vv.), it is striking that in Lk so much space and emphasis are given to the love of enemies, namely 10 vv out of 30 or one third! As has been said earlier, Luke has introduced several minor changes in order to adapt himself to his Greek Readers.
v.27: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you: As in Mt 5,43-48, what is commanded is not a feeling, for we have no direct, coercive control over our feelings, only “diplomatic” influence. What is commanded is a behavior (all the examples given by Jesus treat of concrete actions) or, in other words, a “willed” love (agape), not a “felt” love (philia, stergethon, eros) – an “effective” love, not an “affective” one. The “enemies” aimed at by Jesus are of all kinds for no restriction are envisage; however, the emphasis seems to be on “everyday” enemies, those who are close enough for them to strike us on the cheek or to take away our coat (v.29). (As for the detailed interpretation of all these demands, cf. the explanations given on the Sermon on the Mount.)
v.32: If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?: Instead of speaking of “reward” (misthos) as does Matthew, Luke prefers to speak of “credit” or favor (charis), probably because this word is not tainted by legalism and generally evokes in his eyes the favor of God (see 1,30; 2,40.52; 17,9…).
- For even sinners love those who love them: Instead of “tax-collectors” and “pagans” (Mt), Luke speaks only of “sinners”: the first term would probably be meaningless to his Greek readers, and the second would be offensive.
v.36: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful: Instead of “perfect” (Mt), Luke has “merciful” (oiktirmon), a typical OT expression (hesed) to describe the behavior of God (Ex 34,6; Dt 4,31; Ps 78,38; 86,15…). This term, while being less legalistic, could well be the original term used by Jesus. At any rate, it renders perfectly the basic idea of the whole section of vv.36-42. The passives of these sayings are divine passives.
v. 37: Judge not, and you will not be judged: Here “judge” has the negative meaning of “condemn”: 1) in virtue of the synonymic parallelism of the two stitches of this verse (“judge not…condemn not”); 2) the immediate context is about generosity; now generosity, when applied to the judging of others, implies a sympathetic, accepting attitude – the contrary of censorship and condemnation; 3) the general insistence of the NT on this matter (Rom 14; Jas 4,11-12; etc.). Many texts of NT emphasize the importance of the non-judgmental attitude: Mt 7,1-5; Rom 2,1-6; 14,1-12; 1 Cor 4,3-5; Jn 8,1-11. The ultimate grounds for this precept are the following: judgment belongs to God alone (Mt 5,12; Lk 6,35; Rom 2,6; 1 Cor 3,8.14; 2 Cor 5,10; Eph 6,8; 1 P 1,17; 2 Jn 8; Rv 2,23) and only God can judge with complete fairness (2 Tm 4,8; 1P 2,23) because only God can fathom the deepest recesses of man’s heart (Jr 11,20; 1 S 16,7; Mt 6,4.6.18; Lk 16,15; Rom 2,16; 1 Cor 4,5-6; Rv 2,23). We find the statement of this precept under a positive form in 1 Cor 3,7: “Love bears (stegei: puts up with) all things, believe all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
The practical application of this prohibition raises certain acute problems. Is it always possible not to judge when we have to hire or fire employees, assign duties, evaluate performances, counsel young people about their careers, discipline children, rebuke subordinates? Is it desirable not to judge when we have to function as pastors, educators of the people of God, ministers of the sacrament of penance?
The solution to these problems lies in the distinction between action and person (or the heart, in biblical terms). One’s actions are not always an adequate expression of one’s heart: some people perform right action but for the wrong motives (the Pharisees, for instance), while other people perform wrong actions but with the best intentions (Paul, before his conversion, persecuted the church out of misdirected zeal): Pr 26,23-26; Si 12,16; Lk 23,34; Ac 3,17; 8,1…Now only God can judge the heart, as we have just seen. But man may, and sometimes must, judge the actions of another person, v.g. in cases of fraternal correction (Lk 17,3-4), in cases of pastoral sanctions (1 Cor 5; papal excommunications are instance of this), for the exercise of temporal judicial power (Rom 13,1-5) or of spiritual judicial power in the sacrament of penance (which is termed actus judicialis – DS 1709).
The enemies considered in this page of the Gospel are of all kinds. This includes the enemies of the group or nation to which we belong. Concretely, in the Philippines, this includes the NPA, or on the contrary, the government’s military, depending on our particular political options. Christ asks us to love such enemies! This does not mean that we must change the feelings of deep-rooted aversion or aggressivity we might have towards them: such feelings are beyond our control sons dear to us. That is not the question here. The question is that we must, when the occasion is given us, concretely help our enemy in case of need: feed him when he is hungry, nurse him when he is wounded, help him to die in dignity, bury his body with due religion respect. This may demand heroism sometimes, not only because we have to overcome a natural aversion towards our enemy, but also because by acting in this way we will appear, in the eyes of those of our own side, to sympathize with those of the other side. Of course, this kind of help does not extend to giving military assistance (this would go directly against the command to love, since such a help would eventually be used against our loved ones), information or money (unless compelled to do so and in order to avoid retaliations). But in all this, the point is that, when we could very easily take revenge on an enemy who finds himself powerless in our hands, we should show him the respect and consideration due to him in terms of humanity and Christian love.
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In general, we will rarely have the opportunity of exercising love towards a national enemy. The “enemies” we meet most often in our daily lives are simply the neighbors and acquaintances who have harmed or indisposed us in some small way: the people for whom we have a spontaneous dislike and who grate on our nerves, those who are “against” when we suggest something, those who take unfair advantage of our cooperation, who show disrespect, who damage our things, who slander us behind our backs, who make fun of us, who abuse our kindness, who betray our secrets, who lie to our face, who snub us after we have been kind to them. Such enemies are constantly at our side. Those are precisely the ones Jesus asks us to love. Those are the ones we have to help when we can, forgive from the bottom of our hearts. No doubt such an attitude has nothing “natural” or spontaneous about it. On certain occasions, we would rather die than shake hands with the person who has just harmed us. But that is exactly Jesus asks of us if we want to be disciples: that we should die to our natural feelings and take on once and for all the magnanimous heart of Christ, he who forgave his enemies on the cross. What Christ asks of us is not possible for human nature to achieve, but it is possible with his super-human strength. For we are called to become a new creation in him. If we accept to die in this way, we will discover a new life in him and be able to say with St. John: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love our brothers” (1 Jn 3,14).