Sermon On The Insurmountable

As Jesus continues to teach us how to go above and beyond in his Sermon on the Mount, he saved the hardest instruction for last, “Love Your Enemies”. I don’t know about you, but when I see the word “enemy” I immediately think of things like ISIS or Al-Qaeda or Nazis or guacamole haters or some big huge enemy of the country or the world at large and the concept of having an enemy seems far away and not very relevant to me personally. With that being said, this lesson becomes kind of impossible to practice because I will probably never really find myself nose to nose with the enemy to be able to show them love.  So then I started to make a mental list of those people in my life that might qualify as an actual personal enemy to me, and that’s when it started to get real. 

While my list is not very long, the thought of actually loving some of the people on it felt insurmountable (LOL, Sermon on the Mountable!!). Jesus knows this about us and that is why he has already given us some important building blocks to get us to this point where we can actually fathom living this last one. The Sermon on the Mount can be renamed “Grow Up Already” as it is a seminar in how to attain spiritual maturity, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” 

Working with the elderly has given me a new desire for spiritual maturity. Every day I sit at the feet of some deeply rooted, highly enlightened, and wise human beings that show me the value of the virtues of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding. They don’t have time to harbor hate against their enemies and they have the gift of having, for lack of a better phrase, the whole picture. Their “maturity” helps me to see things differently and they make me want to pursue the gift of wisdom fervently. One of the signs of a truly enlightened person is their ability to love their enemies. The best example (other than Jesus) that immediately comes to mind is when St. John Paul II personally went to the prison to forgive his assassin face to face. I wonder if JPII reviewed the Sermon on the Mount before he went. I wonder how many hours he spent in prayer to get him to that point. I wonder if he wrestled with God over it. I wonder how this act of mercy transformed his enemy’s heart. 

This growing up stuff is not easy, but when we practice it, we can become saints whose spiritual maturity allows us to love our enemies, settle our matters quickly, be faithful to our covenants, let our yeses mean yes and our no’s mean no, deescalate drama and scandal, and transform the hearts of others. 

Back to my list of “enemies”; Jesus isn’t asking me to call them all up and spend the day at Disneyland together, but I can love them in lots of other ways. Prayer is the deepest way and in the past few years my prayer for my “enemies” has taken on a new nature. My prayer used to sound something like this: “Lord, I pray that he or she stops being an idiot”, or “Lord, help them to see that I am right”, or “Lord, keep them far away from me”. But recently, my prayer has become just a little more mature: “Lord, I pray that this new job will give him the peace that he’s been looking for”, or “Lord, grant them true joy, true love, true happiness”, or “Thank you for the things I have learned from this relationship.” At first these were just words that I spoke with little conviction behind them, and now they have transformed into actual desires with strong conviction in my heart. This kind of love for my “enemy” has changed something with in me and helped me to grow in ways I never thought possible, and they weren’t possible without grace. Olaf, the snowman, from the movie Frozen describes true love as, “True love is putting someone else’s needs before yours.” 

Jesus wants us to wrap our hearts around this and practice it. My favorite part in today’s gospel is a real Jesus zinger, “For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?” Yikes. I know we can do better than that. We are growing up, friends, and isn’t it fun to be in this together. It is well with my soul.  

Reading 1 2 COR 8:1-9

We want you to know, brothers and sisters, of the grace of God
that has been given to the churches of Macedonia,
for in a severe test of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty
overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
For according to their means, I can testify,
and beyond their means, spontaneously,
they begged us insistently for the favor of taking part
in the service to the holy ones,
and this, not as we expected,
but they gave themselves first to the Lord
and to us through the will of God,
so that we urged Titus that, as he had already begun,
he should also complete for you this gracious act also.
Now as you excel in every respect,
in faith, discourse, knowledge, all earnestness,
and in the love we have for you,
may you excel in this gracious act also.

I say this not by way of command,
but to test the genuineness of your love
by your concern for others.
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that for your sake he became poor although he was rich,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.

Responsorial Psalm PS 146:2, 5-6AB, 6C- 7, 8-9A

R.(1b) Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Praise the LORD, my soul!
I will praise the LORD all my life;
I will sing praise to my God while I live.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Blessed he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD, his God,
Who made heaven and earth,
the sea and all that is in them.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
Who keeps faith forever,
secures justice for the oppressed,
gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets captives free.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.
The LORD gives sight to the blind.
The LORD raises up those who were bowed down;
the LORD loves the just.
The LORD protects strangers.
R. Praise the Lord, my soul!
or:
R. Alleluia.

Alleluia JN 13:34

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I give you a new commandment:
love one another as I have loved you.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel MT 5:43-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
"You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I say to you, love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."