Today we hear and read one of
the most famous passages in the Gospels: love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you. It is a radical text and not so easy. How can we be expected
to love those who have hurt us or done harm to us? Anthony de Mello, an Indian
Jesuit, who wrote many books on spirituality, spoke often about the concept of
‘loving enemies’. When someone hurts us, when someone triggers emotional pain
in us, de Mello suggests that we try to come to the realisation that we are ‘standing
before our benefactor’. The situation is a reminder that we are still to grow
and we are hurt because someone has not met our expectations. It is these
expectations that we must let go of. We can learn from the other who has
wronged us: how has this affected me? What do I need to let go of?
The teachings in this passage
are radical and go against what we hear around us in our world like calls for
retribution and revenge. However Jesus has high expectations of his followers,
to go against the grain. Jesus is not encouraging passiveness. He is inviting
people to a ‘third way’: to make a non-violent stand when faced with
persecution. By ‘offering the other cheek’ we allow for the potential of conversion
of the other to a realisation of what they have done. The easy option is to
retaliate, to not see our brother or sister standing before us. We can offer
them an opportunity to see our own sacred humanity. ‘Loving our enemies’ is a
call to constantly move towards restoring relationships, offering mercy and
peace.
‘An eye for an eye will leave the whole world blind’. Gandhi.
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