In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
My dearly beloved in Our Lord,
St Paul exhorts us on this Sunday, as he has done on the past Sunday, that we should love our enemies.
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse… To no man render evil for evil, but provide good things not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men… Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine: I will repay, says the Lord. But, If your enemy is hungry, give him food; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Rom 12)
Only the religion preached by Our Lord, i.e. the Gospel of peace (cf Rom 10:15) teaches charity to the degree of loving even our enemies.
There is some charity or at least some niceness in any religion. How could it be otherwise? But we see quite well how confused things are in the false religions – those which are far from Our Lord because they were not founded by him, or because they have defected from him – when nowadays we often hear that Islam is called a “religion of peace”! How come that on a worldwide scale it is mostly adherents of this religion who are responsible for violent attacks, many times on innocent people…? True charity in the sense of supernatural virtue is a gift of the Holy Ghost! It is not found outside the Catholic Church.
A Catholic who even only summarily lives by the principles of the true religion, not only won’t go out and kill himself and/or others; he will positively seek to “be at peace with all men”, as St Paul again says in today’s Reading. And ultimately he will strive to imitate Our Lord and so many Saints who have given the good example of loving one’s enemies.
Why are we to love our enemies? The answer is the same, formally speaking, as for the question: Why are we supposed to love our neighbor? The motives of Christian charity towards others, friends or foes, are (1) that they also, like our own self, have been created by God; and (2) that God has created all human beings in order that they may participate in His eternal life and glory in Heaven.
All too often we do not properly understand the true motives for what we are doing, or for what we are supposed to do. We can see this clearly in the present ecological movement or craze which is leading to the most improbable consequences, such as the pretended Pope recently subscribing to the cult of “mother earth”. Instinctively we know that this is wrong – but what exactly is leading people to such madness? In this question it is about ignoring God’s expressed will by which He has told Adam and Eve to subdue and to cultivate the earth. In the thinking of modern man things are not connected metaphysically or logically. Therefore often enough he cannot make sense of what is going on. Thus there are now people who would prefer the extinction of the human race rather than seeing “mother earth” harmed. Rather than going back to the solid principles of faith and reason which dictate that man make proper prudent and measured use of whatever God has made, they convince themselves of the most ridiculous conclusions put forward by the sworn enemies of Christ and his Church. The devil, the enemy of human salvation, finds it very easy to mislead people once they have renounced common sense.
So if we consider the formal reason for charity as Catholics are supposed to practice it, there can be no doubt that there is no distinction to be made between whoever appears to be our friend or our foe. St Paul is speaking clearly in today’s Epistle – how could we be so blind as not to see the truth? God alone is entitled to separate His friends from His enemies. He does so at the individual’s personal judgment, and He will do so at the General Judgment: “Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to the wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is Mine: I will repay, says the Lord.” Meanwhile, for as long as we live in this earthly condition and not yet in Heaven, the good grain and the weeds are growing together, and there is little we can do about it – except trying to convince the weed to turn into good grain before both are separated, as well as being careful not to turn into weeds ourselves. For the time being we somewhat need to make abstraction from that which displeases God or us in our neighbor, acknowledging that we all without any distinction are God’s creatures; that we have not been called to judge others; and that all souls are meant to go to Heaven: “God wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (1Tim 2:4)
St Augustine resumes our dilemma with regards to loving our seeming enemies in a beautiful phrase: “And often, when you seem to hate an enemy, you are hating a friend without knowing it.” For, as the Romans said: “Dum spiro, spero. - As long as I breathe, I hope.” As long as there is life, there is hope – we have similar sayings in all our languages – meaning that any human being may change for the better and convert to the truth as long as he is still alive. The fact that this may seem highly improbable for some – think of Bergoglio or Ratzinger – does not change anything to this being possible.
As St Paul concludes today: “Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” If we do that which is good, our actions will be rewarded by God 30, 60 or 100-fold in this life, and especially in eternity, regardless of the temporal good or bad outcome here and now. Therefore we are always on the safe side if we do that which is good! Even if it is often enough lost on those for whom it is immediately intended, it is never lost with God. But to achieve this, and to accept to keep doing good in spite of receiving no or a negative response, we need to think as Catholics, and not as liberal or utilitarian “modern” people. We are not working or acting in view of this earthly life only or primarily; but in view of Heaven, glorifying God through our good works and achieving the salvation of our soul.
Even the slain Saints claim that God should revenge their death, as we read in Holy Scripture (cf. Apc 6:9-10; Ps 78)! But obviously they are in total conformity with God’s will Who will revenge all injustice at the General Judgment, and only some of it during this earthly time.
Our Lord gives us the example of dealing with those who are our enemies in one aspect or another: He has always treated with mildness and mercy those who were sinners – except for those who were scandalizing others through their bad example, like the Pharisees, and whom he treated harshly because he had to. Christ has prayed for those who were torturing him and putting him to death! Let us imitate his example and show mercy towards sinners, rather than sin through Pharisaical elevation. We must be convinced that if it were not for God’s mighty grace, we would be just as evil if not worse than those whom we are tempted to despise and to put down.
So let us proclaim the Truth with Charity (cf. Eph 4:15) in order not to do just some good, but the integral good that God expects from us. Then He will reward us in due time, no matter what the circumstances, the ups and downs of our earthly and temporary existence might have been.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
P. Arnold Trauner (paterarnold@hotmail.com), njemački i engleski
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