The first reading from the Book of Samuel today is a good example of loving our enemies. A little background on Samuel may help. Saul had been anointed by Samuel as the King of Israel, but Saul had lost God’s favor in not following his commands. Samuel was then sent at the Lord’s direction to anoint another future King and David had found favor with God. David served under Saul, killing Goliath, and leading his armies with great success. The people of Israel held David in high esteem causing Saul to become so jealous he decided to kill David. Saul’s army of three thousand men were sent to pursue and kill David.
This brings us to the today’s reading where David encounters Saul along with all his soldiers asleep. This would be the perfect opportunity for David get rid of his enemy and, Abishai, encourages David to use Saul’s own spear to kill him. But David refuses as his heart was turned to God. David knew that Saul was God’s anointed and would not harm him What appeared to be a victory in the eyes of David’s troops, was an injustice in his own heart threat. He wanted to follow the Lord, who is kind and merciful as we heard in today’s Psalm.
This does not sound like the plot of a movie would play out in today’s world.
If an enemy is trying to kill someone, they would surely kill the enemy if delivered into their hands. Our culture calls us to take justice into our own hands.
Don’t get mad, get even. Take revenge on your enemies.
Jesus is giving us a different message from the world. He wants us to bring about His kingdom to conquer the world. The way we do this is to love. Love our enemies. Turn the other check if someone strikes you. If someone takes your cloak, also give them your tunic. Do to others as you would have them do to you.
This sounds impossible, but if we recall the Beatitudes, we heard last week we will be blessed if we follow Jesus’ ways. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on account of the Son of Man.
I recently watched a movie called a “Father’s Legacy” that had an unexpected theme of loving your enemies. A young man down on his luck gets fired from his job and then finds out
his fiancé’ is pregnant. He doesn’t know how he is going to support his new child and decides to rob his former employer out of revenge. During the crime, he is shot by a security guard, but escapes with the money. He drives off to an isolated house deep in the woods seeking help. He breaks into the house and holds the old man living in the house at gunpoint demanding help or he will kill him. The old man provides some first aid supplies for the young man, and he eventually passes out. So, what does the old man do? After taking his gun away, he washes the man’s wound, bandages him, and puts a blanket over him to sleep. He doesn’t call the police. The scene of the next morning finds the old man cooking breakfast for him. The old man senses there is something going on with the young man beyond the crime he committed. You’ll have to watch the movie yourself to find out the rest of the story. I found it to be an interesting story of how loving your enemy can change a person’s life.
So how is it possible to counter the way of the world? It’s impossible to do this on our own. If we rely on our human nature alone it would truly be a struggle. But through the Church we’re given the power of Jesus’s Spirit, the last Adam, to overcome our human nature. We receive the grace of the Holy Spirit through baptism and confirmation. The power of Jesus in the Eucharist nourishes us to become like Him. We’re healed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation when we’ve failed to love, so we can again love again as Jesus disciples.
We all know people who are hard to love. Even the greatest Saints struggled with this. Saint Therese of Lisieux, also known as Little Flower, was one of them. She is a doctor of the Church who lived in the 20th century and is known for her little way of love. She struggled immensely with one older sister who was always mean to her. Therese would always respond to her with a smile, kind word, or at worst case just turning the other way. Therese said she was able to love this sister by being attracted to Jesus who was hidden in the depth of her soul.
