Homily for Ordinary Time 7 - February 20, 2022

 

Homily for Ordinary Time 7

February 20, 2022

Love Your Enemies

 

            Daryl Davis is a truly gifted Black jazz musician…whose life was forever altered by a chance meeting in a bar where he was playing. After his set, a man approached him and complimented him on his playing, and the two began chatting. A couple of beers later, the man admitted to Daryl that he was part of the KKK, and Daryl began to wonder what made people join an organization that is based in such hatred for blacks.

            So he began a personal quest to answer that question. From this man, he got the contact information of the Imperial Wizard of the KKK, Roger Kelly. He called Roger out-of-the-blue and asked for a meeting, under the pretext that Daryl was writing a book on the KKK. The two met – and Roger was quite surprised to find that Daryl was black. But over the course of several meetings, the two became unlikely friends, and eventually Roger left the KKK and turned his robes over to Daryl, apologizing for his racism and asking Daryl to be his daughter’s godfather.

            Daryl has made it his life’s mission to stop hatred through friendship. He has befriended dozens of KKK members and over 200 members have left the Klan through his influence. His actions are not without controversy, though. Another African-American activist called him once to tell him to stop wasting his time with people who hate him, saying that white supremacists can’t change. But Daryl’s success proves the opposite – when you love your enemies, there is a transformation: both in the enemy, and in you.

            “Love your enemies” – one of the most difficult teachings of Christ. Why should we love our enemies, and how should we love our enemies? (And when I speak about enemies, I include anyone that we don’t like, people we find difficult to be around).

            We should love our enemies for three reasons. First, because they are made in the image and likeness of God. St. John asks a poignant question in his letter in the Bible: “How can we love the God we cannot see if we do not love the brother that we do see?” That person standing in front of us, no matter how obnoxious or difficult or evil, carries within him the imprint of God. That annoying, bad person has the capability to be a saint!

Second, we love our enemies because Jesus Christ died for them too and wants their salvation. One of Jesus’ last words was, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” If Jesus is able to forgive the very people who were driving nails into his wrists and feet, how can we do any less?

Finally, we love our enemies because if we do not, then we become filled with hatred and evil ourselves. Hatred corrupts the person who hates – thus, if we want to be like Jesus, Who is all-loving, we must make sure that the poison of hatred and revenge do not infect our souls.

But it can be difficult! How do we love our enemies? First, we must remember that loving someone does not equal liking them. We do not need to be friends with everyone. Some people we shouldn’t have in our lives – people that are toxic, abusive, truly evil, people who lead us into sin. For the most part, we don’t have an obligation to be around such people. Rather, to love is to will the good of the other. So even though we don’t like a person because of their actions or their personality, we still must will their good – desire that they be converted, blessed, and that they go to Heaven.

We must remember that even saints didn’t always get along with each other! Two of the greatest saints in history, St. Augustine and St. Jerome, wrote bitter letters to each other criticizing each other’s theological writings! Yet they remained holy men, even though they were never friendly with one another. So we can love without liking – we may never feel emotionally close to enemies or people who have hurt us – but we can still choose to will their good.

How to love, then? Three suggestions. First, pray for them. Ask God to bless them, ask God especially to give them the grace to change their ways, if need be. It is impossible to hate someone we are praying for. And while we’re at it – pray for the grace for ourselves to be able to love as Christ loves.

Second, seek to find ways to do good to them. St. Paul writes that “doing good for our enemies is like heaping hot coals on their heads.” We find practical ways to help them – sending them a birthday card, or providing a meal for them if they need it. Practical acts of kindness can soften a hard heart.

Finally, we must make sure to never speak ill of them unnecessarily. It’s tempting to tell others of how much so-and-so drives us crazy, or what bad thing this person did to us, but to truly love someone is to keep our mouths shut. If our lips are used for praising God, how can they be used for tearing down the Image of God in another human being?

Loving our enemies is not easy – in fact, it is one of the most difficult of Jesus’ teachings. But it is also a way to change the world…or at least change a soul. A saint one time was made because of loving one’s enemies. Back in the early Church, one of the great debates was about what to do with those who had denied Christ under persecution. In the Roman Empire, many people would be captured and tortured to give up their Faith, and while hundreds of thousands did shed their blood for Jesus, some denied the Faith. Later on these people, called lapsi, repented of their cowardice and asked to be readmitted to the Church.

The Pope at the time, St. Pontian, allowed them to return to the Church after a time of penance. But there were factions in the Church who wanted these lapsed-Catholics to be permanently kicked out. A priest by the name of Hippolytus was so outraged by the Pope’s merciful attitude that he decided to declare himself an anti-Pope and try to split the Church.

Well, the pagan Emperor didn’t care about this inter-Church debate, so he exiled both Pontian and Hippolytus to an island where they were forced into slavery, working in the mines. Pontian treated his enemy with such kindness and love that Hippolytus soon recognized his errors. He asked forgiveness from Pontian for the way in which he divided the Church, and the two were reconciled – just before both of them were martyred for the Faith. They are now celebrated on the same feast day – former enemies, now united in eternal life.

I think if we are so blessed to enter into eternal life, we will be surprised to find some of those difficult people already there – and some people will be surprised to find us there! So let us love our enemies here on this earth, so that we are ready to love everyone likewise in Heaven.