Standing apart

A consequence to disciples of Jesus who follow the guidelines in the texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today is that they will stand out in a culture that very quickly identifies the bad actors and begins to distance from all that they do.

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The passage from the Book of Deuteronomy is a dualistic choice between God and not god, between life and death. In the Gospel from Matthew, Jesus declares the fulfillment of the the Law of Moses is to love our enemies.

* [5:43–48] See Lv 19:18. There is no Old Testament commandment demanding hatred of one’s enemy, but the “neighbor” of the love commandment was understood as one’s fellow countryman. Both in the Old Testament (Ps 139:19–22) and at Qumran (1QS 9:21) hatred of evil persons is assumed to be right. Jesus extends the love commandment to the enemy and the persecutor. His disciples, as children of God, must imitate the example of their Father, who grants his gifts of sun and rain to both the good and the bad.

Father Ryan of the New Theological Movement uses the work of Thomas Aquinas to quote Augustine on the topic of Whoever said, "Thou shalt hate thy enemy"?

Here then is the rule by which we may at once hate our enemy for the evil’s sake that is in him, that is, his iniquity, and love him for the good’s sake that is in him, that is, his rational part. This then, thus uttered by them of old, being heard, but not understood, hurried men on to the hatred of men, when they should have hated nothing but vice.

Luis Rodriguez, S.J.  comments  that the popular remembering of the text from Leviticus had appropriated a non-Torah addition introduced by the Essenes of Qumran, some of whom even took an oath to hate their enemies.

Yet, as long as that was the popular “remembering” of the injunction, Jesus uses it to correct the existing extrapolation and to expand the true quote with his own injunction: But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. And he bases his commandment on the Father’s undiscriminating goodness in making the sun rise on the bad and the good and causing rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

Don Schwager shares The gift to love all people - even enemies, by Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.

"Beg God for the gift to love one another. Love all people, even your enemies, not because they are your brothers and sisters but that they may become such. Love them in order that you may be at all times on fire with love, whether toward those who have become your brothers and sisters or toward your enemies, so that by being beloved they may become your brothers and sisters." (excerpt from Sermon on 1 John 10,7)

Friar Jude Winkler comments on the choice in Deuteronomy between life and death; keeping the commandments and having the land or not being God’s people. Love of enemies is Jesus fulfillment of the Law because those who hate us need our love.

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares an invitation to reflection from Judy Cannato.

What are the images that guide my journey, draw my attention, and fashion my awareness? Do I see images that are not helpful because they interfere with my desire to become whole? What image do I choose to hold in my awareness so that I may move toward it and manifest it tangibly in my daily life? I remember that my mind takes whatever I focus on as an invitation to make it happen.

The theological concept of loving our neighbours becomes difficult when we are in situations that call for us to witness to that command of Jesus. References


(n.d.). Deuteronomy 26.16. Retrieved February 23, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/Deuteronomy/26:16

 
(n.d.). Matthew 5:43. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/bible/matthew/5:43 

(2011, February 20). Whoever said, "Thou shalt hate thy enemy"? | The New Theological .... Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/02/whoever-said-thou-shalt-hate-thy-enemy.html

(n.d.). Creighton U Daily Reflections .... Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/daily.html

(n.d.). Daily Scripture Readings and Meditations. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from http://dailyscripture.servantsoftheword.org/

(2017, December 30). 2018 Daily Meditations - Center for Action and Contemplation. Retrieved February 24, 2018, from https://cac.org/2018-daily-meditations/