I have a friend who, whenever someone curses him in traffic, rolls down his window and shouts "Peace be with you." Most people are completely disarmed by this. They are geared for a fight. They expect to have their hostility be greeted by more hostility.
I'm not that nice. When someone attacks me, verbally or otherwise, I get angry and usually respond in kind.
In today's Gospel reading, Jesus makes one of the more astonishing commands of his ministry. He challenges us to love our enemies. This teaching is a true hallmark of the Christian faith, and has been embraced by proponents of non-violent social and political change for centuries.
The call to love our enemies is about far more than how we respond to road rage on the freeways. It is a fundamental part of the call to value all human life. When we hate, we dismiss the object of our hate as unlovable. The call to love our enemies is a call to recognize that all people are valuable.
"Stop judging and you will not be judged," Jesus concludes. "Stop condemning and you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven." We are free to love our enemies when we are free from the desire or need to judge others. If we do not judge, we cannot hate. If we cannot hate, we will have no enemies.
Many individuals, communities and countries are obsessed with their enemies. From vicious divorces to improvised explosive devices, the cycle of hatred and violence seems to churn on with no end in sight. Of course, enemies battle because they have been harmed. They do not forgive, and they are not forgiven.
Jesus shows us a different way - a way out of judgment and condemnation to a world of forgiveness and grace. To practice Christ's way we must remind ourselves that the person who hurt us, the person who attacked us, is also loved by God.
The promise is that if we practice this, we will receive what we give. If love we will be loved. If we forgive we will be forgiven. We are promised the inner freedom to see the good or potential for good in all people. We are promised peace.
Loving our enemies does not mean that we will not have conflicts. It does not mean that we will not have wars. If we have enemies, after all, we will have situations where we are odds with our neighbor, whether it is an individual, a nation, or secret band of insurgents. What we are asked to do is to resist the temptation to dehumanize the people with which we are in conflict. To dismiss them as human beings created in God's image is to lower ourselves to the same level as those who would dismiss us. It will send peace from our grasp.
"Peace be with you may," in the end, be the best response. Working for peace with our actions, not just our words, would mean that we would seek to understand rather than judge our enemy. We would have to desire a positive outcome for them, on their own terms. We would have to value reconciliation over victory. Bill Peatman writes from Napa.
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