2 Cor 8:1-9 / Matthew 5:43-48
On one occasion when someone asked Jesus what must he do to inherit eternal life, Jesus replied with this: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself. (Lk 10:25-37)
But the man wanted to justify himself and asked: And who is my neighbour?
To that question, Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. It is a parable that has many meanings and implications, but essentially the parable points to the fact that love for neighbour must be carried out in acts of kindness and compassion, and even going out of one's way to help that neighbour in need.
In today's gospel, Jesus gave a teaching that also has many meanings and implications when He said, "You have learnt how it was said: You must love your neighbour and hate your enemy. But I say this to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. In this way you will be sons of your Father in heaven.
However in this case, no one asked Jesus: And who is my enemy?
It seems that there is no need to ask that question because it is quite obvious to those listening to Jesus who their enemies were. Or at least they didn't have to think too hard about who their enemy was.
But let's say Jesus were to ask us this: And who is your enemy?
And to that question, maybe what might come to our minds are not those terrorists or people who commit atrocities and commit evil.
Our enemies are not faceless people whom we do not know. Rather our enemies are people whom we do know.
They are people with faces. They are people whom we resent, whom we are bitter about, people whom we bear a grudge against, and at the extreme end are the people that we hate.
Yes, they are people whom we know, but they are not our enemies when we first came to know them. In fact, they were our friends, our neighbours (as in those who are in our social circles).
But something unpleasant happened along the way made them into our enemies. It may be a misunderstanding, a disagreement, a quarrel, etc.
Maybe some of our so-called "enemies" didn't even know that this is what we think of them.
But whenever we think of them, a fire burns within us and feeds our anger, our resentment, our bitterness, our hate.
But it is said that "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle." (Sun Tzu, The Art of War)
So we may know who our enemies are, but do we also know who we are?
Because if we don't know who we are, then it is quite obvious that we are our greatest enemy. And we are just burning ourselves away with all that anger, resentment, bitterness and hate that are within.
Jesus reminds us that we are children of God, "sons of your Father in heaven" as Jesus would call us.
If we really believe that we are sons of the Father in heaven, then we will look at the enemy within and start loving that enemy, and our anger, resentment, bitterness and hate will turn to peace, joy, kindness and compassion.
Then we will truly be able to love God and love our neighbour. As well as love ourselves.