Sometime after the Civil War, Robert E. Lee was visiting a friend’s Kentucky farm. The family took the retired general to see what was left of a once majestic tree in the front of their home. The mistress, still quite upset, cried bitterly that the tree’s limbs and trunk had been destroyed by artillery fire from the Northern armies. She looked at Lee, expecting some words of sympathy for the loss of the beautiful tree or words condemning the hated Union. After a long silence, Lee said, “Cut it down, my dear madam, and forget it.”
Today’s gospel is among the most radical teachings of Jesus that one can find in scripture. What he asks of us is certainly quite different from what our world has taught us or how society expects us to act. Instead of giving us quaint platitudes, he bluntly tells us to love our enemies. “Do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” He doesn’t stop there. Turn the other cheek. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Be merciful and do not judge.
“This is so unreal!” might have been your reaction when you heard this gospel passage yet Jesus is clear and to the point, “Forgive and you will be forgiven.” In a nutshell, Jesus is challenging us to ponder our approach to living. Face it, life isn’t always a bed of roses. We get into skirmishes and confrontations. Some minor, others not, so what do you do when someone wrongs you? Are you apt to forgive, forget and move on? Or do you cling to the hurt, unwilling to let go? Jesus is pleading with us to “absorb” whatever evil is done to us and not respond in kind, so that violence ends with us. To be a disciple of Jesus means having the courage to “cut down” the anger, hatred, despair and distrust that block us from forgiving others when we must, thus enabling justice, reconciliation, and peace to blossom and flourish among us.
Any account of someone forgiving another person for a grievous offense stands out as being heroic rather than the norm. Recall the willingness of both Pope John Paul and President Reagan to forgive their would-be assassins. We may think of them as being heroes but they were simply acting as any Christian should.
I imagine most everyone gathered here aspires to be judged a good Christian but what criteria do we use for being good? Like it or not, there are some inherent values we are being taught here that defines a person as being a good Christian.
We may feel that we are going through the day with a Christian mindset but our actions would suggest otherwise. We approach life with a Christian ethic yet our philosophy may be more akin to “I’m number 1.” “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.” “If you hurt me, I’ll get even with you.”
Many of our relationships in life are shaped by the notion of reciprocity, rather than by the golden rule. That is, “what’s in it for me?” We tend to act the way society expects us to act rather than the way Jesus urges us to in this gospel passage. Instead of living life with worldly wisdom, we should try a dose of Christian wisdom.
Those who hold no grudge against their enemies but attempt to love them demonstrate Christian wisdom. Those who mediate reconciliation by saying, “I forgive you,” to those who have wronged them demonstrate Christian wisdom. Those who give to the less fortunate without seeking IOU’s give evidence of Christian wisdom. Those who are compassionate to the rejected members of society give proof of their Christian wisdom. Those who treat others in the way they desire to be treated have grasped the wisdom behind what Jesus is teaching here.
For those whose lives are shaped by this wisdom, the command to love one’s enemies has not proven to be impossible. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Far from being the pious injunction of a utopian dreamer, the command to love one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Love even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist; he is a practical realist.”
Henry Ward Beecher, a renowned preacher offered this insight to those who are reluctant to their past hurts. “‘I can forgive, but I cannot forget,’ is only another way of saying, ‘I will not forgive.’ A forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note, torn in two and burned up, so that it can never be shown against the man.”
Nonetheless, some of us are still apt to protest, “Why should I forgive that person? There is no way I can forgive that person for what was done to me!” I hear that cry often in the confessional but as Alexander Pope said, “To err is human, to forgive divine.” That line may sound like a cliché, but for the sake of our well-being, we cannot ignore it.
Instead of the traditional litany of prayers as a penance, I often urge penitents to say the Lord’s Prayer slowly and reflectively, and then keep the promise buried in the prayer. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those…”
Jesus isn’t asking the impossible of us. Indeed, we are carried along by the One who has gone before us, establishing the Christian norm that raises the bar beyond worldly standards. With grace, he empowers and enables us to make what many think of as being heroic the norm in our approach to living. Do we dare follow his example?