CHRIST clearly said, nay, commanded us to do so. (cfr. Lk 6,27) We, of course, could not help but be incredulous by these words of Christ. Why oh why should we love our enemies when our very basic common sense would tell us the opposite?
We truly need to pause a little to find why Christ, who is supposed
to be the embodiment of love, the very essence of God, would say so. And the
only answer we can find is that precisely God, who is full of love, cannot hate
anyone or anything. And Christ showed it to us by offering his life for all our
sins. He even offered forgiveness to those who crucified him.
Whenever we have to deal with our enemies in whatever form they can
come to us—whether in the form of persons or contradictions, difficulties,
trials, failures, etc.—we should be quick to acknowledge that we are actually
given a chance, an invitation to grow in love, to conform our love to the real
love that Christ has shown us.
Let’s also remember that Christ himself commanded us to love one
another as he himself has loved us. (cfr. Jn 13,34) Our love can only be
genuine when it channels the very love Christ has for all of us. We need to go
beyond our human ways of loving in order to adopt the love Christ has for us.
For this, the challenge we have to face is how to free ourselves
from the controlling grip of our senses and reasoning, of our own human
consensus and estimations of things, and to let ourselves be guided by the
mysterious ways of our faith, full of wisdom and charity albeit always
accompanied by sacrifices.
This would require nothing less than God’s grace which we can always
safely presume is given to us freely and abundantly. What we have to demand on
ourselves is a lot of humility, of simplicity and obedience. Pride makes us
deaf and blind, insensitive to the ways of God, and makes us our own guide,
instead of God.
To be sure, if we follow this commandment, we would be loving God
and others the way Christ himself has loved his Father and all of us. It’s a
love that is totally inclusive on the part of the lover, though it may be
rejected by the beloved.
It’s a love that would convert and transform us into another Christ,
if not Christ himself (alter Christus, ipse Christus), for love, the real love
that comes from God, has that power of making the lover united and identified
with the beloved.
That is why God became man, and Jesus Christ emptied himself
completely to assume our human nature in its best and worst conditions. This
love shown to us by Christ is the standard of our love. Therefore, loving
others the way Christ loves us is loving Christ in others, and thus transforms
us to Christ.
To be concrete about all this, we can practice and develop this love
simply by being demanding on ourselves while being very understanding,
forgiving, lenient on others, always trying to find excuses for them, eager to
carry their burden.
Especially now in the contention-prone areas of politics and social
media, where all kinds of ideas and comments come, including the most reckless,
thoughtless, mannerless ones, we have wonderful opportunities to live and
develop this true love.
Let’s try to examine ourselves on how our attitude and behavior are
when confronted with unpleasant views and resistance from others. Can we really
say that we are truly loving our enemies?
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