12 Loving Our Enemies
12
Loving Our Enemies
‘To live under the cross’ means that every aspect of the Christian community’s life is shaped and coloured by it. The cross not only elicits our worship (so that we enjoy a continuous, eucharistic celebration) and enables us to develop a balanced self-image (so that we learn both to understand ourselves and to give ourselves), but it also directs our conduct in relation to others, including our enemies. We are to ‘be imitators of God...as dearly loved children’ and to ‘live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us...’ (Eph. 5:1–2). More than that, we are to exhibit in our relationships that combination of love and justice which characterized the wisdom of God in the cross.