Question: How is it going for you in loving your
enemy?
A
Reflection for VII Epiphany All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores,
N.C. February 19, 2017 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector
Loving An Enemy
Years ago when I lived
in Virginia, it was a practice of mine several times a year to leave church in
Lynchburg after the services on a Sunday and drive four to five hours to
Catonsville, Maryland to the All Saints Convent of the Sisters of the Poor. I would
enter into silent retreat and spiritual direction from the Priest who served
there, staying in a room in his residence house and eating my meals alone. The
Priest was a very, very, liturgical, theological and political conservative.
The only thing we shared was a love of Jesus and a sense of our own brokenness,
and that was more than enough. Disapproval was irrelevant; we accepted that we
were different, but we were determined to love. We were focusing in on the
Gospel of John. We agreed with John that God is love, not a feeling nor a
thought, and the way we would find love was to follow the Way, the Truth, and
the Light into a deeper reality for those with eyes to see, however
imperfectly. As Thomas a Kempis observed:
Without the Way, there is no going,
Without the Truth, there is no knowing,
Without the Life, there is no living.
On one trip I was heavily immersed in a book, Cloud of Unknowing, a 1375 manual written to instruct new monks in a contemplative relationship with Jesus. The anonymous author wrote “God can be held fast and loved by means of love, but by thought never.” In other words, as Bill Wilson, one of the founders of AA, said: “You can’t think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking.”
That particular trip I got a cassette tape copy of Cloud of Unknowing to play in the car as
I was driving. There was a gentle voice reading the instructions, so gentle
that I was close to being in a meditative state, which is definitely not the
state to be in when you are driving over 70 miles an hour on the Intrastate
Washington DC Beltway.
Jesus
and his disciples did not have beltways to drive on, but they lived in a
dangerous place nonetheless, traveling on dangerous roads. They had enemies who
used the court systems to take advantage of the poor. A First Century example
of a payday lender practice preying on the poor was the ploy of advancing money
on the collateral of a coat, and when you could not repay, the court would
order the coat seized. One choice was to run away and hide, in which case you
would be arrested and lose your freedom and
the coat. The second option would be to give up the coat and fill your life
with resentment and bitterness, a life not worth living. Jesus suggested that
there was a third option - when they come to get the coat, you stand before the
lender and take off the rest of your clothes as well, to show them by your
nakedness their greed. By exposing
yourself, you exposed their greed, and then the issue was not the coat but the
reality of the hardness of their hearts within a culture of exploitation. This
was a way for them to know the truth so that they and the culture might change
and enter into a different way of living, holding God fast and loved by means
of love.
Without the Way, there is no going,
Without the Truth, there is no knowing,
Without the Life, there is no living.
In
the same way, Jesus and the disciples lived in an occupied country where the
arrogant occupying forces would slap people out of their way. One choice of
response was to fight back, which was considered rebellion and you would die.
The second choice was to take it and stuff it all down until you are filled
with anger and bitterness, a life not worth living. Jesus gives a third option -
to stand up to the person who slapped your right cheek with the back of their
right hand as if you were a thing in their way and say to them, “I am not a
thing. I am a full human being as you are; hit me with your fist on my left
cheek, so that you know what you are doing.” You speak the truth to them and to
the state’s use of arrogant power so they might change the next time and enter
into a new way of living, holding God fast and loved by means of love.
Without the Way, there is no going,
Without the Truth, there is no knowing,
Without the Life, there is no living
Jesus speaks of the law that allowed
soldiers to require civilians to carry supplies for the occupying forces for
one mile, and he gives the third option of carrying the supplies for a second
mile as a way of standing up to the abuse of power, choosing a way of
non-violence to speak the truth for a changed life, holding God fast
and loved by means of love.
Without the Way, there is no going,
Without the Truth, there is no knowing,
Without the Life, there is no living
Within my lifetime, I have seen this
acted out in a time of an unjust, arrogant, and exploitative society. The Civil Rights struggle centered on the ways
of nonviolent resistance, speaking the truth in love and choosing the third
option of clogging the court systems with so many people resisting that the
legal repression collapsed under its own weight. Those who quietly supported
the status quo of repression by thinking that they were “Christians” could no
longer face themselves in light of the Gospel which called them to a changed
life, holding God fast and loved by means of love.
Without the Way, there is no going,
Without the Truth, there is no knowing,
Without the Life, there is no living
How
is it going for you in loving your enemy? What is the way you will pray for
your enemy? What is the truth you will share with your enemy? What is the life
you will lead with your enemy?
Loving
An Enemy
Not
wanting to, but today I will love you.
Not
a mere feeling or even good thought.
But
eyes opening to see different reality,
No
longer are you a thing with a threat;
the
threat remains but you are no thing,
rather
a lashing person in pain or in fear.
To
that pain and fear I will speak a truth.
Whether
you hear it is beyond my power.
I
speak with my body offering other cheek
showing
also not thing but pained person,
fellow
child of the one who loves us both
evolving
out of wombs of same star dust.
I stand defenseless and naked before you
I stand defenseless and naked before you
walking
over again multiple second miles
as
my love will absorb your pain and fear
I
pray you from pain and fear be set free
praying
I not return what you’ve given me.
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