'Love your enemies.' Sunday Reflections, 7th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Christ, El Greco [Web Gallery of Art]

Readings (New American Bible: Philippines, USA)

Readings (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, India [optional], Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland, South Africa)

Gospel Luke 6:27-28 (New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition)   

Jesus said to his disciples:

 ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’

Léachtaí Gaeilge   

Pope Benedict XVI [Wikipedia]

Here is a reflection by Pope Benedict on this Sunday's gospel duringhis Angelus talk on 18 February 2007. I have emphasised some parts.

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This Sunday's Gospel contains some of the most typical and forceful words of Jesus' preaching: ‘Love your enemies’ (Lk 6: 27). It is taken from Luke's Gospel but is also found in Matthew's (5: 44), in the context of the programmatic discourse that opens with the famous ‘Beatitudes’. Jesus delivered it in Galilee at the beginning of his public life: it is, as it were, a ‘manifesto’ presented to all, in which he asks for his disciples' adherence, proposing his model of life to them in radical terms.

But what do his words mean? Why does Jesus ask us to love precisely our enemies, that is, a love which exceeds human capacities?

Actually, Christ's proposal is realistic because it takes into account that in the world there is too much violence, too much injustice, and therefore that this situation cannot be overcome except by countering it with more love, with more goodness. This ‘more’ comes from God: it is his mercy which was made flesh in Jesus and which alone can ‘tip the balance’ of the world from evil to good, starting with that small and decisive ‘world’ which is the human heart.

This Gospel passage is rightly considered the magna carta of Christian non-violence. It does not consist in succumbing to evil, as a false interpretation of ‘turning the other cheek’ (cf. Lk 6: 29)claims, but in responding to evil with good (cf. Rom 12: 17-21)and thereby breaking the chain of injustice.

One then understands that for Christians, non-violence is not merely tactical behaviour but a person's way of being, the attitude of one who is so convinced of God's love and power that he is not afraid to tackle evil with the weapons of love and truth alone.

Love of one's enemy constitutes the nucleus of the ‘Christian revolution’, a revolution not based on strategies of economic, political or media power: the revolution of love, a love that does not rely ultimately on human resources but is a gift of God which is obtained by trusting solely and unreservedly in his merciful goodness. Here is the newness of the Gospel which silently changes the world! Here is the heroism of the ‘lowly’ who believe in God's love and spread it, even at the cost of their lives.

Dear brothers and sisters, Lent, which will begin this Wednesday [Lent 2019 begins on 6 March] with the Rite of Ashes, is the favourable season in which all Christians are asked to convert ever more deeply to Christ's love. 

Let us ask the Virgin Mary, docile disciple of the Redeemer who helps us to allow ourselves to be won over without reserve by that love, to learn to love as he loved us, to be merciful as Our Father in Heaven is merciful (cf. Lk 6: 36).

Antiphona ad communionem  Communion Antiphon Ps 9:2-3

Narrabo omnia mirabilia tua.

I will recount all your wonders,

Laetabor et exsultabo in te,

I will rejoice in you and be glad,

psallam nomini tuo, Altissime.

and sing psalms to your name, O Most High.