7th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
1 Corinthians 15:45-49
Luke 6:27-38
“…Love your enemies,
do good to those who hate you...”
Today, we have a continuation of the sermon on the plain. This is the Lukan counterpart of Matthew's sermon on the mount. "Plain and mount” is not synonymous, which is not geographical but theological. While Matthew is catering to Jewish listeners (thus using the "mount" to illustrate the sublimity of the Law and Christ's teaching), Luke is directing himself to non-Jews (thus using the "plain" to stress universality of Christ’s message). It is not surprising, then, that while the Matthean version speaks of love as a perfection of the Law, and today’s Lukan version takes love as mercy and compassion. We meditate today on the following points.
1. Justice builds a human world. It is understood as
giving someone his due. The "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,”
"Do not do unto others want others do unto you,” are among the
centuries old codic illustrations of this virtue. And although they become so
aged by the passage of time, these codes have remained relevant even to modern
men. The imperatives of justice are the measures of human conduct, and hence,
are inseparable from life. Without justice, human life is no human at all.
Jesus knows this. In fact, today we hear him set the golden rule in a positive
way: "Do to others as you would have them do to you.” The faith,
which Christ preaches is surely a faith that does justice. After all, as no one
escapes from the scale of divine justice, God deals with us just exactly the
way we deal with others. “Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and gifts
will be given to you…for the measure with which you measure will in return be
measured out to you.”
2. But mercy surpasses justice. As Jesus knows how important justice is, he equally knows that justice is not enough. True, justice makes us human, but it does not make man really that Christian. "If you love those who love you, or do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same.” With justice, we put ourselves into equal footing with the rest of humanity, but it raises us up nothing more. Jesus asks us to go beyond the limits of justice. It is only then that we may become children of God. "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” Mercy is the higher component of justice. With justice we make a cruel world, human; but with mercy we make a human world, divine. With justice we make doors for humanity; but with mercy we open the gates of heaven. Indeed, where justice ends mercy begins. This mercy is completed by love. For the truth is: mercy is only one dimension of love. If ever mercy elevates us into a higher plane, it is actually mercy in the context of love that we mean.
3. "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” This is the highest call of love posed by the gospel today. And this is a trademark of being a Christian; meaning, by doing it, a Christian makes himself different from the rest. We have at least three big reasons for this.
First, because love is the greatest virtue. St. Paul reminds us that even though we have faith that conquers all doubt and hope that defeats all forms of despair (and despite all other virtues for that matter), this would count for nothing without love (cf 1 Cor 13:1ff). And this is so because all virtues must point at the realization of love as the highest and greatest of all. Loving one's enemies is most difficult, but it is precisely this love that makes us love even the ugliest person in the world. This seems redundant as a vicious circle is. But as the call of love can only be responded by love, so too love is no love unless shown in love. Perhaps this seeming redundancy makes the virtue more meaningful.
Second, because the object of love in this case is the “unlovable”. This makes the case most difficult. It runs contrary to the normal course of man's life and experience. How could that be so easy as to love our enemies, when the normal way is to hate them? How could it be so fair as to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who mistreat us, when the normal way demands us to do just exactly what they are doing? But doing the normal way makes us no different, nor makes us any better. So, this precisely makes the point. Loving the unlovable makes us merit the sacred dignity of a Christian.
Third, by the fact that such imperative is most difficult and nearly impossible, man can in no way do it when left alone and unaided. Only the grace of God enables man’s weak character to answer this call to love. We are caught with both wonder and awe when we recall how the martyrs held on to their faith as they were thrown to the lions, or how they could afford to sing songs of praise as they were burned at stake. St. Paul acknowledges this paradox that indeed, it is when we are weak and powerless that we become strong in Christ (cf 2 Cor 12:10).
4. There are many stories about the persecutions told orally by tradition and written in the Acts of the Martyrs. They are handed down to us to dramatize the painful years of the early Church. Some of them are legendary but many indeed are accounts of history. Today, let us tell one. But this story can be told again and again, hopefully to your children and your children’s children.
During the age of persecution, a school child came home one afternoon bruised and blooded. The anxious mother asked what happened. The little boy said softly: “My classmates bit me because I am a Christian." “Did you fight back? asked the mother. "No, Mama, because I am a Christian.” With that the mother took the locket of her necklace out of her breast, opened it and showed to his son a small piece of cloth stained with blood. “See this, my son? This is taken from the robe your father last wore when he was thrown to the lions. He never denied his faith. He kept it and died for it. See, this piece of cloth is stained with a martyr's blood. I have kept this so dearly all through the years intending to give it to you when the right time comes. Now is the time. You are still young, I know, yet you have proven to be a man Take and keep this, as your father kept his faith. You are already a Christian in your tender years. But like your father, a Christian till the end.”