This Week

But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."----Luke 6:27-38

In Bisho, some former officers testified about the Bisho massacre where 29 people were killed and as many as 200 were injured in a 1992 march...One of the officers had already alienated the people with his insensitive tirade. Then another confessed his part and asked for forgiveness. In the audience were people who had been wounded in that incident, people who had lost loved ones, but when that white army officer asked for forgiveness they did not rush to strangle or assault him. Unbelievably, they applauded. Yes, this is a crazy country. I said at that point, let us keep silent, because we were in the presence of something special, or something holy. Many times I felt we should take our shoes off because we were standing on holy ground. - ---Bishop Desmond Tutu

This reference (Luke 6:38) is to corn being poured out into a fold of a garment overhanging a girdle...Pressed down means by hand rather than treading, in order that the contents may fill all the space in the container...Shaken together means to drive to and fro, the gain is moved to and fro in order to make it settle down and leave room for more...Running over: after the corn has been pressed carefully down, shaken to fit more room, more is poured in to fill the empty space.

----Translator’s Handbook on the Gospel of Luke

 

Love is not fundamentally...a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being "drawn toward." Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one’s friends and enemies. Love is...a willingness to be present to others without pretense of guile. Love is a conversion to humanity – a willingness to be present to others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives." ----Carter Heyward, Our Passion for Justice

For one human being to love another:

that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks,

the ultimate, the last test and proof,

the work for which all other work is but preparation.

----Rainer Maria Rilke

• What does it mean to really love those who are hard to love?
• Who is it hard not to judge? In what situations must we judge? Is Jesus referring to all situations?
• Is reconciliation, forgiveness, such as Tutu speaks of, really possible? When? How?

Why should we love our enemies, refrain from judging, forgive?