Posted on by musingthemysteries

Love My Enemies. Any Way I Can Get Out of That?

If I could I’d invent a loophole to get me off the hook of loving my enemies, believe me I would­­––maybe something along the lines of pleading insanity. I’ve made a few failed attempts at the “unrealistic-for-postmodern-times” excuse for not following him in enemy-love. If nothing else, I could hide behind the popular alibi that only spiritual superheroes like Mother Teresa and Bishop Tutu can do it.

When all else fails, I’m left with facing my failings, pinning down my flesh for a count of ten (eleven just to be sure), and devoting myself to living beyond human means.

These enemy-love ethics can only be cultivated by internalizing the blessed attitudes, especially this one on meekness. Only inwardly governed meek people can live into the kind of goodness that’s beyond the goodness of Pharisees. Only they are able to express unconditional love to people above them, below them, and against them.

[An excerpt from my book: WHAT ON EARTH? Considering the Social Implications of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.]

2 Replies to “Love My Enemies. Any Way I Can Get Out of That?”

  1. In 2017 you shared some of Woody Allen, parody of a “Good German.” Reading this (and the MLK quote about complicity), I’m struck by the parallel to those passively ignoring the genocide in Gaza. Too many “Good Americans,” “Good Jews,” et al, and forget about the Israelis.

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    Last, but not least, Schmeed says:

    “I have been asked if I was aware of the moral implications of what I was doing. As I told the tribunal at Nuremberg, I did not know that Hitler was a Nazi. The truth was that for years I thought he worked for the phone company. When I finally did find out what a monster he was, it was too late to do anything, as I had made a down payment on some furniture. Once, toward the end of the war, I did contemplate loosening the Fuhrer’s neck-napkin and allowing some tiny hairs to get down his back, but at the last minute my nerve failed me.”

    Can you spell “complicity”?

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