LOVE YOUR ENEMIES

One day a priest looked at his congregation and asked, “Those who do not have any enemy, please raise your hand”. No body did for a while and then at last an old woman raised her hand. The whole congregation including the priest were surprised to see that and then the priest invited her to the front and asked, “you know, even Jesus had enemies and how come you do not have any enemy?’ she said, “I outlived all my enemies” then every body clapped for her and in order to honor her, the priest said, since you do not have any enemy, I invite you to pick three hymns for the celebration today. And the old lady was so happy and looked at every one and then looked at the men and said, “him… him and him”.

Dear friends in Jesus Christ, today’s gospel is a very challenging and difficult one. It is not an easy one to practice; even His chosen apostles struggled to keep this commandment of love. We often hear of loving neighbor but today’s gospel invites us to love our enemies.

In the first part of the gospel, we hear how we have to tolerate others and thus they may come to know that we do not live our life according to the rules and regulations of this world but we lead our ever day life according to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Once a missionary who was getting ready to go to the tribes in Australia prayed to God for strength and then he opened the gospel to read some inspiring words of Christ and he read, “do not resist an evildoer. If anyone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other also and if anyone wants to sue you and takes your coat, give your cloak as well. If they ask you to walk a mile, walk with them two…”

He then landed among the tribes in Australia and he learned that they were very horrible people. They were cannibals, eating people. When they saw him, they came to him and they began to mock him, laughed at him. They treated him very cruelly but he on the other hand did not do anything. He silently accepted every thing. Then he managed to preach the good news to them. Once they were all converted to Christianity, he built a beautiful church in the village. One day the missionary met with the head of the tribe and asked, “I know you are cannibals and you eat people and how come you did not eat me?” the head of the tribe said, “you see, none of us wanted to eat you because we eat people to acquire their skills and bravery but nobody wanted to be like you taking all insults and suffering and pain”.

Once Gandhi said, “ If we practice eye for an eye rule, then the whole world will be blind”. Yes, forgiveness and acceptance bring peace and happiness. If we apply Jesus’ rule of love, we will taste heaven every day here. The secret of life, happiness and joy lies in the teachings of Christ alone.

In the second part of the gospel, Jesus asks us to love our enemies and do good to them and pray for them. Sometimes we think that we are so good and every body likes us but the truth is there will always be a person who will not like us. We will be rejected for the way we speak, smile, laugh, eat, dress or have more friends. Anything we do, there will always be a person who will not like us. And how are we going to accept the person and love him or her. How are we going to do good things for them and pray for their health and improvements?

Once a man was ended up in the hospital after bitten by a mad dog. It looked as though he were going to die because the treatment for rabies was not working. So doctor came up to him and said, “by the way, the treatment is not working, this is the time to make your will and testament”. The man began to write his will. He was going on and on writing and one point the doctor said to him, “You are writing a long will…” the man said, “ no doctor, I am not writing my will… I am making a list of people, I am going to bite”.

How often do we pray for those who dislike and hate us? Jesus our Lord while he was hanging on the Cross prayed to his father saying, “father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing”. We all have enemies not because we did something bad to them, because they do not know us. They are not given the blessing to know and understand us. They are blessed to enjoy our company. They are away from us because they are not given the opportunity to experience our love and happiness.

So we should not hate or consider them as our enemies instead we should pray for them more and more and thus they will come to know our goodness especially they will come to know that we belong to Jesus who is full of love and kindness. They will come to know that we are forgiving people sent by God. Amen.