Scripture
Matthew 5: 43 – 47
‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?’
Matthew 22: 34 – 40
When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
Reflection
Jesus often speaks about loving one’s enemies and as I was wondering about this I thought about the Greatest Commandment that challenges us to love our neighbour as ourselves. I have to admit, I have often struggled with both of these scripture passages. It can be so difficult for us to actually consider loving those who might be seen as opposed to us, let alone those some might consider their enemies. It is also challenging to love our neighbour as ourselves when it is difficult sometimes to love ourselves, let alone anyone else. I wonder if there is a connection between these two?
Fr. Richard Rohr, the American priest, writer, and teacher, actually highlights a connection, between loving our enemies and loving ourselves, as he reflects on Matthew chapter 5. These statements of Jesus come right after his Sermon on The Mount, where has has shared the gathered community, what we know as, the Beatitudes. Those statements about being blessed. It is easy to see these statements on blessing as speaking to others, but in reality they speak to us and the challenges of loving those who are are challenged to love. In reflecting on the scripture from Matthew chapter 5, Richard Rohr says, “Our enemies always carry our own shadow side, the things we don’t like about ourselves. We will never face our own shadow until we embrace those who threaten us. The people who turn us off usually do so because they carry our own faults in some form.” I remember being told as a young person that the reason that I don’t like some people is because they reflect a part of myself that I would rather not see. I will be honest with you, I struggled with this statement and I didn’t understand what it meant. But now, I wonder if, to love our enemies means that we come to terms with those shadow parts within ourselves. I wonder if it might even be deeper than that we must come to accept and love the dark parts of ourselves as well as the light and in doing so we come to accept the dark parts in others. How does do we even begin to love our enemies and in turn ourselves?
It begins when we develop our capacity to forgive. Forgiveness is not forgetting, ignoring, or downplaying an ‘evil’ act. It rather naming that act, acknowledging that act, and in doing so the act no longer becomes a barrier to forming relationship. This is challenging in so many ways as there seems to be so much negativity, and might I say evil, in the world today. In this most difficult act we might come to see that the evil-deed does not encompass all that that person might be. These acts do not express the totality of a person. As Fr. Rohr states, “There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. When we look beneath the surface, beneath the impulsive evil deed, we see within our enemy-neighbour a measure of goodness and know that the viciousness and evilness of their acts are not quite representative of all that they are.” This might then allow us to learn to forgive ourselves and to see that the mistakes of our past, the evil that we might have done, does not encompass all that we are, for we are more than what we have been and what we have done. In coming to forgive and love our enemies, we might just learn to forgive and love ourselves and vice versa. To come to see another not only in a negative light, but also as one who too has God’s image etched in their being we can begin to see ourselves and them, not only as broken, but also as redeemable by God’s love, grace, and mercy. It is in loving ourselves that we learn to love others and in loving others that we might learn to love ourselves.
Prayer
God of Infinite Grace, we ask for the wisdom to see the things in ourselves that are reflected in those we don’t like, those whom we see as our enemies. Give us the courage to look at the dark side of ourselves and to accept those parts that are had to accept. Help us to see others, not only as all of the negative things they have done, but also marked by your presence. Help us to forgive ourselves and others so that your grace, mercy, and love may flow through the world. Amen.
Peace and blessings, Rev. Patrick Woodbeck
Grey Street United/ The Big Red Church (Gordon-King Memorial)