The scribes and Pharisees were always trying to trap Jesus, to get him to contradict his Jewish faith, to have him clarify what it means to follow the law of God in our lives. When we hear Jesus say today that we need to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, perhaps Jesus is thinking about the Old Testament passage from Leviticus that states: “You must not exact vengeance, nor must you bear a grudge against the children of your people. You must love your neighbor as yourself.” Notice that there is no prohibition against acts of revenge against strangers and outsiders in the passage from Leviticus that I referred to.
And then there is the question of enemies, perhaps referring to those we are hostile toward and those who are hostile toward us. I thought about this in the context of the shooting in Orlando over the weekend, with one gunman killing more than 50 in a nightclub in that city and injuring more than that number. Rather than asking for vengeance or revenge, Bishop Kopacz responded yesterday, proclaiming:
“As Bishop of the Diocese of Jackson, I ask all the faithful to offer prayers and acts of mercy on behalf of the lives of so many innocent people extinguished in the blink of an eye by a deranged and misguided gunman in Orlando yesterday morning. We pray for them and for their families and friends who are now facing an unimaginable grief.
“This senseless act of hatred adds to the seemingly unending number of acts of violence in our world against the life and dignity of each and every human person. In the face of such evil, now more than ever, we must respond with the love and compassion of Christ in order to bring true and lasting peace in our families, our communities and our world.”
May we be instruments of God’s peace. May we never resort to hatred, vengeance, or revenge.
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