Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time
(I Kings 21:17-29; Matthew 5:43-48)
Biblical theologian John Meier found Jesus’ command, “Love
your enemy,” unique. He examined all extant Jewish and pagan literature before and during Jesus’ lifetime without locating
any equivalent saying. For Meier this
indicated that the words come directly from Jesus. That is, he was convinced that the command
could not have been borrowed from another source and attributed to Jesus as
“the kind of thing he would say.” “Love
your enemy” may be jarring to those who hear it for the first time, but it is
not the only statement of today’s gospel that wakes one from slumber.
Jesus tells his disciples to “’be perfect as your heavenly
Father is perfect.’” This statement sounds
almost neurotic. Conventional wisdom
states that “perfection is the enemy of the good.” Mothers advise their children that only God
is perfect and that humans must accept their fallibility. But Jesus remains unsparing in his
command. His disciples are to become
like God in their relations with others; that is, they must treat everyone
justly.
Before putting aside Jesus’ command as impossible,
impractical, or self-destructive, we need to consider something. These dictates come with grace of the Holy
Spirit. He is the very presence of God
who does not merely help but transforms us.
We are no longer crippled by sin but walk as God’s children. As Bach’s
children wrote music approaching the glory of their father’s work so too can
our virtue resemble the perfection of our heavenly Father’s.
