This is a devotional that Marion Meyer shared at a gathering of MCC Connecting Peoples Coordinators in Honduras, September, 2011. Marion and her husband, Ricardo Torres, are the Country Representatives for MCC Mexico.
When thinking about Christians, advocacy, and peacemaking, I am reminded of the Biblical imperative to “love our enemies”. Surely we think of people who commit injustice as our “enemies”.
Luke 6.22-23;27-31
22 ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you* on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
27 ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt.30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
Movement 1: We are prophets
I really like this passage because it starts off by describing the reason why we have enemies, and that is because we are prophets. Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest in the US, writes:
“The prophet could be compared to the court jester who keeps the king honest and on course. The prophet is the passion, the justice, the truth-speaker of God, especially to all forms of institutional idolatry. They are set up for conflict and rejection.” (Rohr, 1995, p. 240)
This also implies that our enemies may be among those whom we consider part of us, and not just people way out there. When we are advocate for justice and peace, we are acting within the realm of the prophet.
Movement 2: What is love?
Martin Luther King reminds us that Jesus uses the the Greek word “agape” for the kind of love that he is referring to in this text. Agape love seeks nothing in return. It is a creative, understanding, redemptive goodwill towards all people, an overflowing love that is akin to the love of God working in the lives of people. Agape love means loving someone not because you like them but because God loves them.
Movement 3: Why should we love our enemies?
The first reason Martin Luther King (and others such as Mahatma Gandhi) give for loving our enemies is that hate begets hate. Violence elicits another violent reaction, and the only way to stop this vicious cycle is for somebody to respond with love.
The second reason has to do with what hate does to the person who is hating. Of course, hate hurts others, but it hurts the hater even more. When we hate we lose perspective – we start to see things in a negative light, and we start to respond in unhealthy ways based on that.
A final reason he gives for loving our enemies is that love is redemptive. If we hate our enemies, there is no room for redeemption and transformation. Initially, our enemies will resist our love, but with time love can melt their hearts and they start to react and act in a different and more healthy way. Of course, there is no guarantee that love will achieve this, but we know that hate has no option of doing this.
Movement 4: How should we love our enemies?
Martin Luther King posits that the first place we should start if we want to love our enemies is by looking at ourselves. He admits that there are many reasons that the other person might have for disliking us that we have no control over, such as our gender, our place of origin, skin colour, religion etc; but it is also possible that there is something in us, something that we have done that elicits the other person’s hate response to us. He says that this is what Jesus meant when he said “look at the log in your own eye first”.
We begin to love our enemies and those who hate us, whether in collective life or individual life, by looking at ourselves. Since we are so close to the 10th anniversary of 9/11 we could ask ourselves, what has the West done that generates hate within certain terrorist groups? On a more personal level, maybe someone has a hard time being with us because we have not healed a personal experience, and when we interact with them we do so as if they were the person who has hurt us because they use a phrase or body language that reminds us of the other person.
Secondly, we need to recognize the element of good that is present in our enemy (again at a collective level as well as an individual level – it is easy to criticize Walmart for instance, but the story is more complex, and if you really listen to people, you will hear that Walmart is also the good mixed with the evil). We must learn to see the image of God within our enemies no matter what they do. Discover this element of good and place your attention there – this give you a new attitude towards this “enemy”.
Finally, love is the refusal to defeat or take revenge on any individual, rather, it is the evil within systems that you challenge.
When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.
Movement 5: How do we hold our enemies accountable?
In addition to loving our enemies we are told to pray for them. Henri Nouwen views prayer as living in the presence of God, and as the basis of peacemaking:
“Prayer is the basis of all peacemaking precisely because in prayer we come to the realization that we do not belong to the worlds in which conflicts and wars take place, but to him who offers us peace. The paradox of peacemaking is indeed that we can speak of peace in this world only when our sense of who we are is not anchored in the world.” (Nouwen, 1998, p. 17)
Movement 6: What are our motives for peacemaking?
You have probably heard the saying: “Your are your own worst enemy”.
What does this imply then, if we are to love our enemies? Is it a bit like what Jesus implies in Matt 22:39 and Mark 12:31, that we can’t love our neighbours any more than we love ourselves? Can we infer then that until we learn to love the darkness within ourselves and appreciate what it has to offer us in terms of transformation and unity with God, we will be unable to love our enemies?
Again, Henri Nouwen suggests that if we do not make peace with our own darkness and let God’s love in, then all our peacemaking efforts (even non-violent ones) will result in violence:
“It can indeed come as a great shock to realize that what we consider works of service in the name of God may be motivated to such a degree by our wounds and needs that not peace, but resentment, anger and even violence become their fruits. …..Self doubt, inner restlessness, fear of being left alone, need for recognition, and desire for fame and popularity are often stronger motives in our actions for peace than a true passion for service. These are motives that bring elements of war into the midst of our action for peace.”
“… Nothing is more important in peacemaking than that it flow from a deep and undeniable experience of love. Only those who know deeply that they are loved and rejoice in that love can be true peacemakers. Why? Because the intimate knowledge of being loved sets us free to look beyond the boundaries of death and to speaking and act fearlessly for peace.” (Nouwen, 1998, p. 12)
References:
1. King, Martin Luther. Loving your Enemies. http://www.mlkonline.net/enemies.html.
2. Nouwen, H., 1998. The Road to Peace: Writings on Peace and Justice. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.
3. Rohr, R., 1995. Radical Grace: Daily Meditations. Cincinnati, OH: St Anthony Messenger Press.
Pictures: “Trees of life” are detailed clay sculptures made in central Mexico. Originally the sculptures were used to teach the Biblical story of creation to indigenous people during the colonial period.