Justin Appel
Friends in Christ,
Today’s Gospel contains Jesus’ command to love our enemies. We have heard this phrase a lot, but hearing it unpacked feels tremendously challenging. St. John Chrysostom taught 26 steps in responding to an enemy:
- Cause no harm.
- Don’t take revenge in proportion to your injury.
- Do not seek revenge at all.
- Do not resist evil.
- Be patient and endure the wrong.
- Do not get inwardly upset.
- Thank God and rejoice for the gift of the offense.
- Suffer the offense voluntarily.
- Wish to suffer even more.
- Feel no hate.
- Feel no resentment.
- Do not speak ill or accuse them.
- Do not despise them.
- Feel no aversion toward them.
- Feel no bitterness or sadness.
- Do not judge.
- Sincerely forgive them.
(Love hasn’t yet begun, as it is far more than a lack of enmity.)
- Strive to be reconciled.
- Feel pity and compassion.
- Wish not for God’s revenge.
- Pray for God to have pity on them and forgive their sins.
- Have affection for them.
- Wish good and do good to them.
- Consider those who do us harm like those who do us good.
- Treat the enemy like a friend.
- Love the enemy like I love myself—even more than myself.
Seeing such a list of practicalities makes me realize how difficult and self-abnegating is the love of an enemy, since it is derived from God’s love for us.
Jesus loved those who rejected, betrayed, and tortured him, asking his Father to forgive even those actively crucifying him— “for they know not what they do.”
If God redeems and forgives us, our love of enemies flows from compassion and compunction, as we recognize our own sinfulness.
God grant us the grace to follow this difficult path.
Yours in Christ,
—Justin