Luke 6: 31-16
One of the
hardest things in life is to be kind to those who have offended us. It seems to come naturally to respond with resentment,
anger, and judgment to those who treat us poorly. This is true in our personal relationships, in
our families, at work or school, and it is also true when we think of how
nations get along or often do not get along.
In the world as we know it, it is easy to do good to those who do good
to us, but terribly hard to love our enemies.
So we may wonder why the Lord gave
us such a difficult teaching to follow as we find in today’s gospel
lesson. Be merciful even as your Father
in heaven is merciful. Love your
enemies. Do good to everyone; lend
expecting nothing in return. Treat
others as you wish to be treated. Christ
Himself tells us that this is the difficult path to the blessed life of the
Kingdom of God.
I know that we are tempted to say
that this message somehow does not apply to us.
Maybe it is possible for monastics, such as the great ascetic St.
Cyriacus the Anchorite of Palestine whom we commemorate today, or for others
who lived long ago or in other parts of the world. We often despair, however, of actually obeying
Christ’s command ourselves. We do so
because, like everyone else since Adam and Eve, we are fallen people in a
fallen world.
No matter what century or country we
live in, no matter our age or marital status or occupation, we all struggle
against the spiritual diseases that make it so hard to forgive, love, and serve
those who have violated our pride by offending us. We have turned away collectively and
individually from the truth that we are made for a common life in the image and
likeness of God. We have forgotten that
it is our very nature as persons to be united with one another in love as are the members of the Holy Trinity.
No, our calling is not simply to have
friends or family members. Even terrorists and gangsters have them, for it is
easy for people to love those who love them—even if they are so filled with
hate against others that they think nothing of killing innocent people who get
in their way. But what kind of love is
that? It is a love not even worthy of
the name because it is really nothing more than self-centered desire, than
simply judging others in terms of whether they please us. If so, they will be nice to them. If not, they will find a way to destroy them.
Of course, that is an extreme
example; but we have only to look in the mirror to find instances that hit closer
to home. If our spouse, child, or best
friend needs help, we usually do not even think twice about doing what we
can. But if it is someone whom we do not
like, who has wronged us, or a stranger whose request is simply inconvenient, we
make excuses. And sometimes we treat even our spouses, children, and friends in
such poor ways. When we do so, we live according to the lie
that whether people please us is what determines whether we relate to them as
those who bear the image and likeness of God or as nuisances not worthy of our
attention.
And in that
moment, we commit idolatry as surely as if we bowed down before a golden calf,
for we are simply serving ourselves, worshiping our own will, and disregarding
the calling that the Lord has given us all:
to participate in the mercy of our Father in heaven. He is kind to the ungrateful and selfish. He loves even those who reject Him, even
those who killed His Son and the rest of us who reject Him so often in what we
say and do. Still, He bestows countless
blessings on us all. And through the Son
whom He sent out of love for the world, we are able to become participants in
His life, to become His sons and daughters.
How tragic,
then, that we so often choose to reject this high calling and instead to live
according to the same corrupt principles that continue to bring crime, war, and
broken relationships of all kinds to the world.
How sad that we so often prefer death to life, pain to joy, and the
hollow victory of self-exaltation to the blessedness of growing in communion
with one another and with the Lord Himself.
And if we as Christians live this way, what hope is there for a world
where helping our friends and cursing our enemies is just business as usual?
Jesus Christ is certainly
the hope of both the Church and the world.
He is our hope because He brought a new way for human beings to relate
to others and to God. He died and rose
again for those who rejected Him, who nailed Him to a cross and thought that He
was demon-possessed. He not only healed His
own people the Jews, but showed the same mercy to Gentiles, Samaritans, and
even a Roman centurion, a foreign soldier who occupied His homeland. He was at times very frustrated with the
disciples for their lack of faith; they largely abandoned Him at His arrest and
crucifixion, but Christ still appeared to them after His resurrection and blessed
them as the leaders of the Church.
Our Savior is
the embodiment of mercy to everyone, for He came to save and transform the
entire world, the whole creation, and especially every human being—for we are
all created in the divine image and likeness with the glorious calling to share
fully in His victory over sin and death, to ascend with Him to the peace and
joy of eternal life. Even more amazing
is the truth that we are able to participate in Him, to be nourished by His
Body and Blood, the medicine of immortality and holiness. And, yes, we really are able to become
merciful as our Father in heaven is merciful.
By being filled and transformed by His grace, we may become living icons
of the divine love and light even in our most difficult relationships.
No, receiving
the Eucharist does not automatically restore us to perfect spiritual health. We
have to prepare to receive Christ for our salvation by repentance, prayer, and
fasting, but we are still never worthy of Him because He is the infinitely Holy
God and we are sick and in need of a physician. We are the dying who need to be brought back
to life. We probably reject Him in some way every day. And yet He still loves us, receives our
prayers for mercy, and even makes us guests at His Heavenly Banquet. In every Divine Liturgy, we enact and
participate in the joy of our salvation, the unfathomable mercy of God that
extends even to you and me.
The answer to
our tendency to be kind only to those who are kind to us and to worship at the
altar of our self-centered desires is found in the One who offered Himself for
those who were not kind to Him, who treated Him like an enemy to the point of
death. Again and again, as we approach Him
“With the fear of God and faith and love,” we become what we receive. His selfless mercy will transform us, becoming
the deep truth of our lives that we will live out in how we treat friend and
foe alike. Of course, we must cooperate by mindfully
struggling to go the extra mile for others even when we do not want to, by turning
the other cheek when we are insulted, and biting our tongues when we would like
to respond in kind to harsh words. We
will surely stumble and fall short on this path, but with a prayer for mercy,
we must move forward, step by step, in showing others the same compassion that
we ask from our Lord. And then we will
become more like our Father in heaven, whose mercy extends even to you and me.
Let us never
think of the Eucharist as just something that we do every week or even simply
as how we as individuals commune with Christ.
More fundamentally, the Eucharist is how we are
transformed to be the Body of Christ, in communion with the Holy Trinity and the
Church in heaven and on earth. It is how we participate personally in our Lord and
fulfill our true nature as human beings united in love with all who bear the
divine image and likeness, even our enemies. It is an
icon of the Heavenly Banquet to which we all—friend and foe alike—are invited.
So despite our spiritual
brokenness and imperfect relationships, let us put aside everything that stands
in the way of opening ourselves by prayer, repentance, and faithful reception
of our Lord’s Body and Blood to the joy and reconciliation that are ours as the
sons and daughters of the God. Let us leave
this holy temple strengthened in our ability to be kind even to the ungrateful
and selfish and to be merciful like our Father in heaven. Let us make all our relationships visible signs
of the great salvation that Jesus Christ has brought to the world, and thereby grow
closer to Him and to one another.
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