To you who hear I say,
love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
A few decades ago we had people with whom we disagreed, to be sure, but few we would admit to be our enemies. These days it is harder to avoid the fact that we all seemingly have more enemies. It is the nature of discourse in our modern society to amplify the angriest and most radical voices. Even those who began as moderates become polarized. In trying to reject one thing they know to be wrong they reach to the opposite extreme for ammunition. There is one way to ensure that this situation remains unchanged. That is by continuing to treat our enemies as enemies, and to engage with aggression and the desire to be proven right rather than with compassion and the desire for dialog.
To the person who strikes you on one cheek,
offer the other one as well,
and from the person who takes your cloak,
do not withhold even your tunic.
It is of course true that as soon as we show compassion it is mistaken for weakness. When we try to conciliate through dialog we are shouted down rather than heard. The temptation is to push back even harder, and to shout even louder. But while this might be helpful to ensure that we don't lose entirely it is unlikely to lead to anything other than retaliatory escalation. By contrast with the ways of the world we can't accept the ways of Jesus because they seem impractical. It seems that turning the other cheek and giving more than is asked of us will be nice gestures, certainly, but ones which will be lost in the great sea of conflict in the world. Maybe Gandhi could change a whole nation in that way. Maybe MLK Jr. could. But wouldn't it be mere unhelpful theatrics for us, especially those of us who aren't committed to politics full-time? But while it is true that for us the path of nonviolence is unlikely to make an impact or even register at the national level it may do something even more profound. It may change individual hearts. It may begin at a grassroots level that is almost invisible at first but which is a necessary precondition of opposing sides learning to hear one another again at all levels of society.
Do to others as you would have them do to you.
We don't want people to meet us with an unwillingness to discuss our issues or an active hostile toward us. And so we must continue to try to engage others in the way that we ourselves would want to be engaged. How would we want to be corrected by others when we were wrong? By shouting and belittling? Doubtful. We must always be ready to make the first move of kindness. If we always insist on some token of sincerity by the other side we may be asking something of them that we wouldn't want them to ask of us in a similar situation.
Stop judging and you will not be judged.
Stop condemning and you will not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven.
Give, and gifts will be given to you;
a good measure, packed together, shaken down, and overflowing,
will be poured into your lap.
We are called to act more and more in the way that God himself acts toward us, to be merciful as our Father is merciful. Even when we are ungrateful and wicked his love for us does not waver. This means that we are no position to judge anyone else as unworthy of love or beyond the possibility of salvation. In fact, it is impossible to receive God's mercy ourselves if we are unwilling to show that mercy to others. But great promises attend to those who heed the teaching of Jesus. If we try our best to hold nothing back then God will be free to hold nothing back from us. In return for our meager efforts we will receive a supernatural abundance of spiritual gifts.
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