Love Your Enemies, Even When It’s Difficult
by Paulist Fr. Rich Andre
February 24, 2020

Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily for the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year A) on February 23, 2020 at St. Austin Parish in Austin, Texas. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; Psalm 103; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; and Matthew 5:38-48.

Today, the words of Jesus challenge us anew. At a time when we in this nation are so bitterly divided by political issues, Jesus tells us once again: “Love your enemies.” Aurgh! Why does Christian discipleship have to be so hard?

While our psalm speaks of the LORD’s kindness and mercy, our other readings are about conflict and the challenge to rise above the basic human instinct of retaliation and getting even. Paul tells the Corinthian Christians not to divide themselves into factions devoted to different apostles. Leviticus warns us that even if we must admonish someone else, we must not sin against them. 

For the times we’ve failed to love others as God loves us, we ask for mercy.


In his final book, written at the age of 82, the author Kurt Vonnegut wrote: 

[T]he most vocal Christians,.… often with tears in their eyes, … demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course, that’s Moses, not Jesus. I haven’t heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere. ‘Blessed are the merciful’ in a courtroom? ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’ in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

On Wednesday, I was at the place in the Holy Land that claims to be where Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount. In the little chapel and throughout the extensive, gorgeous gardens overlooking the Sea of Galilee, the Beatitudes are depicted over and over again on signs, in mosaics, and within stained glass, in a variety of languages. 

What’s striking is that at the very place where Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes are the only part of the Sermon which is displayed! The Beatitudes are challenging and counter-cultural, but perhaps other portions of the Sermon on the Mount are even more challenging. Think about it. 

  • If you’re behind on a deadline at work, would you dare to quote this verse to your boss: “Do not worry about tomorrow” (Matthew 6:34)? 
  • What if the opening credits of Game of Thrones included the verse, “Whoever looks at a [person] with lust… has already committed adultery” (Matthew 5:28)?
  • Imagine the celebrity gossip website TMZ changing its tagline to “Stop judging, that you may not be judged” (Matthew 7:1)? 

The section of the Sermon on the Mount that we heard in today’s gospel is every bit as challenging. Love your enemies? We humans have an instinct to want to retaliate when we are hurt. When we feel that we have not been treated fairly, we want to take from others. In fact, our civil law system is based on such a concept. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

But civil law is not a very good standard for determining our morality. Civil law sets the bare minimum; Jesus challenges us to a much higher standard. He challenges us to build a world that strives for peace and reconciliation, rather than for absolute fairness. Consider the logistics of turning the other cheek. If we strike someone – whether it’s intentional or accidental – they are turned away from us. To turn the other cheek is not necessarily inviting the other person to strike us again, but to engage, to look them in the eye, to give them the benefit of the doubt, to dialogue, to figure out if the relationship can be saved, to reconcile.

If Jesus’ message isn’t challenging enough in the abstract, it’s even harder when we apply it to the particularities of our own lives. We are living in an extremely contentious time in this country. I don’t recall politicians ever attacking each other with as much vitriol as they do these days. It’s getting difficult to watch speeches from politicians with whom we disagree, without throwing objects at the screen! And when our neighbors praise the congressional, executive, and judicial representatives with whom we disagree, so many of us shake our heads, muttering, “I can’t understand how anyone with half a brain can agree with them.”

Yet Jesus calls us to love our enemies. Paul tells us not to divide into factions. When people say insulting things, we are to turn the other cheek and look one another eye to eye. When someone gives us arguments that make no sense, should we carry the burden for a while to relieve others from the strain?

How do we build bridges when so many of us on both sides of the political divide are convinced that the other side has no respect for human life, be it for the unborn or for the impoverished? I wish I had the answers, but I think there are four truths we need to hold on to simultaneously:

  1. Many powerful forces benefit from the contention in our politics, including fundraisers, foreign interests, social media, political parties, news organizations, and advertisers.
  2. It will take a huge amount of spiritual and emotional will to change our political discourse, requiring millions of people to work cooperatively against the forces that want to divide us.
  3. If we truly believe that today’s Scriptures are the inspired Word of God, we are compelled to get involved.
  4. If we don’t know how to move forward, we’ve got to pray constantly to the Holy Spirit for guidance.

Paul calls us to abandon the wisdom of the world and embrace the foolishness of God. The reign of God will never break upon the earth if we only show compassion to the people who agree with us. As Christian disciples, our mission is to spread God’s love far and wide. We don’t have to work hard to find a reason to dislike our relatives, our co-workers, or our neighbors who disagree with us. No one is perfect. Life is far from perfect.

So what does Jesus mean when he commands us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect? God created us: he knows that we’re flawed and incomplete. But look at the context: Jesus is talking about loving those we disagree with. We are flawed, but Jesus invites us to be perfect in love. We can only become perfect by seeing our enemies as members of the one body of Christ.