Some of you may have been wondering, while I've been com-
17. Love of Our Enemies
Some of you may have been wondering, while I've been commenting on this letter of John's, why the thing he especially urges on us is love of our sisters and brothers. He speaks of "one who loves his brother," and he says, "This is his commandment, that we should love one another." He's always talking about love of our sisters and brothers. Love of God— that is, the love we must have for God—he doesn't mention as often, but it's there. But love of our enemies is scarcely mentioned anywhere in the whole letter. Although he eagerly preaches love to us and urges it on us, he doesn't tell us to love our enemies; rather, he tells us to love our sisters and brothers. Now in the gospel we hear, "For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?" How is it that John the apostle urges fraternal love on us as a great point of perfection, and the Lord tells us that this is not enough, that we have to enlarge our love so that it reaches even to our enemies?
Those who love their enemies don't disregard their sisters and brothers. Love is like fire: first it has to seize what's close by, and then it stretches out to what is farther away. Your sisters and brothers are closer to you than anyone else. Again, a person you don't know but who doesn't oppose you is closer to you than an enemy, who does oppose you. Extend your love to the people close to you, but don't call it an extension. It's almost loving yourself when you love those attached to you, Extend it further to people you don't know, people who haven't done you any harm. But go beyond them too; go on and love your enemies. This is clearly what the Lord commands. But why hasn't John said anything about loving our enemies?
All love, my friends, even what is called carnal love, con-
LOVEOFOURENEMIES /
tains a certain goodwill toward those who are loved. We shouldn't love human beings as we hear gluttons say that they "love" pheasant. Ask them why they love to kill and consume them! They say they love them, but the result is death for the pheasants. What we love to eat we love for this reason: to consume it and be refreshed. Are we to love human beings as things to be consumed?
There's a certain friendliness, a goodwill, that leads us at times to do good to those we love. What if there's nothing we can do? Goodwill alone is enough for a lover. We shouldn't wish people to be wretched so that we can perform the works of mercy. You give bread to the hungry, but it would be better if no one was hungry and you had no one to give to. You clothe the naked, but if only everyone had clothes and you didn't need to! You bury the dead, yet I wish that time were here when no one dies! You reconcile those who are quarreling, but we long for the eternal peace of Jerusalem, when there will be no discord! All these are our responses to needs. Take away the wretched and works of mercy will cease. Works of mercy will cease, but does that mean the flame of love will go out? No, the love you have for a fortunate person, to whom you have nothing you can give, is a fuller and truer love; it's purer and far more sincere. If you do good to some wretched person, you may want to exalt yourself and have the object of your good deed under obligation to you. Say there is someone in need, and you share what you have. Because you're the giver you feel superior to the one who receives your gift. You should want to be equal, so that you may both be subject to the One to whom nothing can be given.
A Christian must be one who does not set himself up over other human beings. It's by God's gift that you are superior to the beasts and better than they are. This you possess by nature. You'll always be better than a beast. If you want to be better than some other person, you'll be envious when you see that you're equal. If you surpass someone in wisdom, you ought to want that one—say some man—to be wise too. As long as
82 / LOVEONE ANOTHER, MY FRIENDS you're ahead he learns from you; while he's ignorant he needs you. You'll appear to be the teacher and he the learner. Because you're the teacher you're superior to him, and as the learner he's inferior. Unless you want him to be your equal, you'll want him always to be learning from you. And if this is what you want, you'll be an envious teacher. If you're an envious teacher, how will you be a teacher at all? So I beg you, don't teach him your envy! Listen to the Apostle speaking from the heart of love: "I wish that all were as I myself am!" Do you see how he wanted all to be his equals? It is because love made him want this that he was superior to them all.
Show mercy, then, as do people with merciful hearts, because even in loving your enemies you are loving your sisters and brothers. Don't think that John has given no commandment concerning love of enemies. He's spoken of the love of sisters and brothers, and it's always them you are loving. Do you ask how this comes about? I ask you: Why should you love your enemies? Is it for the sake of good health in this life? What if that's not expedient? Do you want them to be rich? What if they'll be blinded by their riches? Do you want them married? What if this makes their lives bitter? Do you want them to have children? What if they turn out badly? These things that you appear to desire for your enemies because you love them are uncertain. Desire for them rather that they share eternal life with you. Desire that they be your sisters and brothers. If this is what you desire when you love your enemies, that they be your sisters and brothers, then when you love them it's sisters and brothers you are loving. It is not what they are that you love in them but what you would have them be.
Imagine, my friends, that there's a tree trunk lying in front of you. A skillful craftsman sees it, unhewn, just as it was cut down in the forest, and takes a liking to it. He wants to make something out of it: this is why he likes it; he doesn't just want to leave it as it is. By his craft he sees what it will be, and this is what he likes, not what it is in its present state. This is the 'way God has loved us sinners. I say, God has loved sinners, for he said that "those who are well don't need a physician, rather those who are sick." Did he love us when we were sinners so that we'd continue to be sinners? It's as the craftsman looked on the tree from the forest that our Craftsman looked on us: what he saw was not the raw material but the edifice he was going to make of it. This is the way you too must look on your enemies, those who oppose you, who rage against you, who wound you with their words and provoke you with their slanders, who harass you with their hatred. You must remember that these are human beings. You see in all their hostility to you their own doing, while you see in them as persons God's doing. That your enemies are human is God's doing; their hatred, their malice, these are their own doings. And what do you say in your heart? "Lord, be merciful to them, forgive them their sins, put fear in them, change them!" It's not what they are that you love in them but what you would have them be. So when you love your enemies, you are loving your sisters and brothers.
Therefore, perfect love is the love of your enemies, and this perfect love consists in the love of your sisters and brothers. You can't say that John the apostle has insisted less on this point than Christ our Lord: John has told us to love our sisters and brothers; Christ has told us to love even our enemies. But notice the reason Christ has told us to love our enemies. Is it that they'll always be our enemies? If this was why he said what he did, you'd be hating them, not loving them. Consider his own love. He didn't want his persecutors to remain his persecutors: "Father," he said, "forgive them, for they know not what they do." By wanting them to be forgiven, he wanted them to be changed; he wanted his enemies made into his brothers, and this is truly what he did. He was killed and buried; he arose, ascended into heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit to his disciples. They began boldly to preach his name; they performed miracles in the name of the One who was crucified and slain. The Lord's slayers saw these things, and the blood they had shed in their rage they came to drink in faith.