March 11th, 2017: Matthew 5: 43-48.
Nowhere in the
Bible do we find the command which Jesus cites in the gospel reading today:
“You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” Jesus is citing not
Scripture but general public opinion when he refers to a command to hate your
enemy. Speaking not as an interpreter of the law, but as the Lawgiver (and we saw yesterday that he does
this repeatedly in the Sermon on the Mount), Jesus states what we could call
the new law of God: “Love your
enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” The book Leviticus has
something similar, but limits it to Jews: “Take no revenge and cherish no
grudge against your fellow countrymen.” (19:18) Jesus, in effect, lifts the
limitation to Jews and makes the command universal. How could he do this?
Because this is how Jesus himself lived.
The 12th
century English Benedictine, Abbot Aelred writes about this in a work called The Mirror of Love. Here is what he
says.
“He who is more fair than all men
offered his fair face to be spat upon by sinful men ; he allowed those eyes
that rule the universe to be blindfolded by wicked men; he bared his back to
the scourges; he submitted that head which strikes terror in principalities and
powers to the sharpness of the thorns; he gave himself up to be mocked and
reviled, and at the end endured the cross, the nails, the lance, the gall, the
vinegar, remaining always gentle, meek, and full of peace.”
Jesus also prayed for his tormentors,
Aelred reminds us, saying “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they
are doing.” And so, Aelred writes, “If someone wishes to love himself … he must
enlarge the horizon of his love to contemplate the loving gentleness of the
humanity of the Lord. … If he wishes to prevent this fire of divine love from
growing cold because of injuries received, let him keep the eyes of his soul
always fixed on the serene patience of his beloved Lord and Savior [Jesus
Christ].” (Breviary Office of Readings, Friday of the first week of Lent.)
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