“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love
your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father” (Mathew 5:43-44)
We are told very clearly by Christ in the above Gospel passage to love our enemies. There really isn’t any way
around such an explicit command of the Lord. I think this command to love our enemy is made even more
binding upon hearing also the words of Jesus as he hangs, dying on the Cross, “Father, forgive them, they
know not what they do.” The followers of Jesus have no choice but to love their enemies.
So I guess it’s important to first figure out who our enemies are so that we can love them. The word
“enemy” is derived from the Latin word “inimicus” which comes from the words “in” (not) +
“amicus” (friend). Even deeper, “amicus” comes from the Latin word “amare” to love. So a friend is one that
loves us and a “not-friend”, an enemy, is one who does not love us. I think though, in common usage, an enemy is better described as one who has or seeks to harm us in some way. I think we all can identify with
that. It’s a true spiritual challenge to reach out in love to those who have and/or are trying to hurt us. But
we need to make sure we don’t tag everyone who has hurt us with the “enemy” label. I’m sure we all can
think many times that we ourselves have hurt someone by a careless word or deed. Enemies aren’t negligent
or thoughtless, they want to hurt us. It’s an important distinction.
Frankly, I think it’s pretty much impossible to love true enemies without the grace of God. And I think here is
the core of the command. Like so many teachings of the Lord, loving our enemies does not come naturally to
our fallen human nature. The Lord is calling us to rise above our fallen humanity; something that can only be
done through his grace. The command to love our enemies is another example of our need to call upon the
infinite treasure of grace and strength that comes from Christ to do something that we can’t do otherwise.
This treasure is available to those who strive to live an authentic Christian life and have a true friendship with
the Lord through the practice of our faith and the worthy reception of the sacraments. You are never going
to make a key five foot putt to win the match if you don’t practice putting. We are not going to be receptive
to the grace of Christ if we do not practice our faith.
We will never be able to forgive or to love our enemies if we are not close to the Lord. And the problem with
this is that if we don’t forgive them and don’t love them, we are going to be miserable. Our enemies are our
enemies for some reason, they probably don’t care that they hurt us, heck, that is what they try to do! Wallowing in hatred and anger for someone who has no concern for us is pointless. So there is also a practical
wisdom in this teaching, it’s good for us to love them. But above all, I think it is our prayer, the prayer of the
one injured for the one who has injured, that merits a special hearing in God’s presence. Probably more than
anything else that can help the conversion of such a person through God’s mercy, is a prayer offered on behalf of the enemy by the one who has been wronged.
No talk about enemies is complete without a reminder that we are to be no one’s enemy. Ever. While we
may defend ourselves and our loved ones from harm through moral means, intending to harm someone in
any way - whether it is physically, emotionally, spiritually, harming their reputation, taking away their friends,
revealing their faults and sins – is a grave sin and cries out to God for justice. If we do, we’d better hope that
the person we’ve harmed listens to the command of Jesus to “love your enemies” or we are going to be in
big trouble.
God bless you,
Father Joseph Byerley
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