7th Sunday in Ordinary Time A

A FARMER, who bore a grudge against a Fox for robbing his poultry yard, caught him at last, and being determined to take an ample revenge, tied some rope well soaked in oil to his tail, and set it on fire. The Fox by a strange fatality rushed to the fields of the Farmer who had captured him. It was the time of the wheat harvest; but the Farmer reaped nothing that year and returned home grieving sorely.

My dear friends, revenge, hatred, anger, or grudge is not good for us. It is like a fire that is burning in us and consumes us. But what can we do? If someone hurts us, it is not easy to treat him well. Retribution or getting even seems to be the most common response to wrongdoing. How can one forgive someone who destroys your reputation and keeps doing it? It is our tendency to say, "Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." [Dt. 19:21.]

In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands each disciple to love one’s enemy. And this seems to be difficult for us to follow. But if we are going to understand what Jesus means by saying this, we will realize it is not as hard as it seems to follow.

When Christ said, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you,” He was not asking us to have nice feelings towards an enemy. He was saying that we should not seek revenge. If revenge, hatred or grudge dwells in us, then we are dwelling in sin. And if we live in sin, then we lose our soul and it is the devil that wins.
When Christ said, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you,” Jesus was not asking us to condone to what is evil? Shall we allow the culprit to escape? Loving an enemy does not mean forgetting everything about the wrongdoings. No. There must be justice and at the same time we ask God that the culprit will be sorry for his wrongdoings and reform. We have to win the soul of our offender over the devil.

Perhaps the example of Pope John Paul II can provide us a picture of this “love of enemies”. Although the Pope had forgiven Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish who had attempted to assassinate him on May 13, 1981, Agca remained in jail for years to atone for his crime.