Love your enemies - 2

One of the hardest sayings of Jesus is found in today’s gospel (Matthew 5:43-48). It reads: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. A number of years ago I was involved in a program which helped ministers of religion to live out the call to be instruments of justice and peace in urban contexts. One of the participants in this program was training to be a military chaplain. He prepared a paper entitled “How to provide spiritual direction to people who are being trained to kill”. While I cannot remember the details of his paper, I recall the theological reflection which accompanied his paper. Despite his rather gruff and straightforward manner, he was very emotional as he struggled with the question of to how to accompany soldiers as they prepared to go into battle and kill the enemy. He could find no easy answer to the question of how to preach to soldiers about the texts we hear today. After all these men and women were risking their lives to defend their country and their fellow countrymen and women. One of the ways of dealing with this painful question is to think of what it is that they are defending. It is not just a country. It is people who share important values and one of those values is truth and reconciliation. It is a community where enemies speak to one another and find ways of resolving conflicts through honest dialogue, admission of guilt and sincere forgiveness. War should never be inevitable. Let us pray for those communities who strive for a lasting peace that can overcome long-standing enmities. Remember also the words of Martin Luther King, "Love is the only thing that can turn an enemy into a friend."