Jesus said: “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.”
POINTERS FOR PRAYER
1. Our natural tendency when attacked is to self-protection and when we are attacked we attack back. We respond to an angry word with another, or to a blow by hitting back. Here Jesus suggests that at times there may be another way to act. What has been your experience of retaliation? Has it been life-giving? Have you experienced another way of acting?
2. When we do good to another, it can sometimes be in return for what we have received. At other times it can be done in the hope of getting something back. Or we may do it simply for the sake of doing good without any strings attached. Jesus suggests that this is when we are at our best. Recall your experience of these different ways of giving and celebrate the occasions when you gave without expectation of return.
It would be easy and perhaps tempting to think that our Gospel today is chiefly about morals, about how we behave. I suppose it is about morals but more profoundly it is about who we are on the inside. Character comes before action; spirituality comes before morality.
Firstly, Jesus was, in his own way, a kind of philosopher, an observer of life, with profoundly alternative ways of looking at things. His teaching to love your enemies was ground-breaking in its day and has lost nothing of its disturbing “novelty”.
Secondly, the call to a higher, even impossible love is a central part of the Christian message. As Jesus insistently points out, there is nothing very special about loving those who love you. Jesus’ higher teaching calls for an inner conversion to seek the good, to do what is right, to be loving, beyond what comes naturally.
Thirdly, that very point is made by Luke: be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate. So, how compassionate is God? Again, a vivid illustration is given: he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. We, in our turn, are glad recipients of God’s compassion and kindness, gifts which “reside” in us only when they become part of us, only when we ourselves are compassionate and kind in turn.