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In today’s Gospel, Jesus asking too much of his disciples? of us? Reason insists that loving one’s enemies is dangerous; lending without expectation of return is folly. From an early age, we are taught it is not only natural, but necessary, to condemn bad behavior. And forgiveness? – perhaps sometime that is possible, but only after the other admits and repents the harm he or she has caused.
Perhaps we are meant to see matters differently. Perhaps Jesus is not inviting us to act in a manner contrary to our nature, rather to act out of our True Nature. Is Jesus urging us to re-member our connection to the Divine Indwelling, then to respond out of that Source of grace, power, love? When seen from this perspective, it is not us who loves or gives or forgives; it is the Divine acting in us, with us, through us.
Healing Life’s Hurts: Healing Memories through Five Stages of Forgiveness offers a concrete example. After WWII, a woman encountered a former Gestapo guard, one who had been at the camp where her father and sister had been murdered. In church, he help out his hand to her. “I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not… and so I breathed a silent prayer. ‘Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness.’” As she took his hand, she felt a current pass from herself to him. “And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world’s healing hinges, but on God’s. When God tells us to love our enemies, God gives, along with the command, the love itself.’”
Answering the call of this Gospel is possible when we understand that the Spirit that animated Jesus’ ministry is the same Spirit that animates us. By surrendering to the Indwelling Spirit, we invite grace to flow through us. We may eventually notice that we too are “kind and merciful.”