‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’

They say that Christianity is unique among world religions in urging love for one’s enemies. Most traditional societies and religions have no concept of universal love.  That is, of love outside an immediate network of relationships among family, friends, tribe and nation. When I was a missionary in South Korea, a society deeply influenced by the Confucian notion of the Five Relationships, I discovered that one’s enemy and someone to whom you have not been introduced do not fit into one of the five relationships, and therefore in a sense do not exist as fellow human beings. It came home to me when I found that people kept walking into me in the street - because in their eyes I didn’t exist and therefore could not be ‘seen’. This shows how radical Jesus was in urging love of one’s enemy.  

Lent, therefore, is a good time to reflect on the enemies in our lives. Those, perhaps, who fundamentally disagree with us; or those who go out of their way to avoid us; perhaps even someone who is against us in some active and undermining way. Let me give an example, if a rather banal one. One of our next-door neighbours leaves his rubbish in black bin-liners next to our wheelie bins. This became very annoying. However, instead of confronting him and angrily insisting he stop doing it, I decided to knock on his door and speak to him politely. I discovered he has medical problems and is unable to walk some distance to the collective bins provided for the housing association flat he lives in.  My enemy became a friend, which is Augustine’s take on love of one’s enemy. He says that we love our enemy ‘in the hope that one day he will become our friend’. I’m sure the world would become a much better place if enemies could be seen as potential friends. Try hugging an enemy for Lent.

A reflection written by Paul Graham O.S.A., St Joseph's Broomhouse, Edinburgh, Scotland

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