The Merion Park waterfall in winter:

Sunday Homily: February 18, 2007 Luke 6, Love your enemies

A recent obituary caught my interest. It told the story of the life of Walter Sondheim, a civic leader in Baltimore Maryland who died this past week at the age of 98. His friends and associates lauded his wonderful skills in working with people and getting them to dream together about doing big civic projects in education and urban renewal. He said himself that it was more important to understand people than it was to like them. People said that, because of his great skills at understanding, he had no enemies.

An unfortunate man, perhaps. Without enemies a person cannot go that extra mile that the Lord talks about when he instructs us to love our enemies.

But Mr Sondheim in his old age at least did not love his enemies like the aged woman who gave her own testimony on the topic: “It is easy for me to love my enemies at this stage of my life. I’ve outlived them all.”

…..The love of enemies is at the heart of the gospel teaching. It is well-known that it is this teaching that attracted Gandhi to Jesus…..

You are familiar with one of the most moving episodes in the famous movie about Gandhi’s life. It bears retelling. In 1947 when independence finally came to India, Gandhi was distressed that the country was split in two, into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. In the violence that followed independence, he fasted almost to the point of death in order to bring it to an end. One scene during the fast depicts an encounter that Gandhi has with a Hindu man. The Hindu came to him and said “I am going to hell.” Gandhi asked him why. He said he had killed a Muslim boy and he describes the boy’s death as a particularly brutal murder. Gandhi in a calm and measured voice replied, “I know a way out of hell. Find a child with no parents and raise it.” The man’s face lightens immediately with these promising words of direction. And then Gandhi adds: “Only make sure it is a Muslim child and raise it as a Muslim.” It is then that the man realizes how hard it is to get out of hell and to love one’s enemies.

……But finally and really the only thing worth remembering from these words: The foundation and the wonder about this teaching regarding the love of enemies is this: God loves the enemies of God. God forgives the enemies that want to tear down the image of God. If we are to become holy as the heavenly Father of Jesus, then we, too, must love our enemies. There is no higher calling and no greater grace for which to pray.