Love your enemies, and pray for your persecutors
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Hardest Teaching
Hardest Teaching
Solomon says, Proverbs 25:21-22
If your enemies are hungry, give them food to eat, if thirsty, give something to drink; For live coals you will heap on their heads, and the Lord will vindicate you.
St. Paul repeats it Romans 12:19-21
Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.
The food doesn’t kill them. But this is like the love of God. For those who are opposed to God, His love causes them pain. There is an Eastern tradition that Hellfire is just the love of God experienced differently by the damned. These coals of love will force the person to change their world view, or go deeper and deeper into their own small and hateful world that they currently reside in.
Think of the cop, Javier, in Les Miserables.
Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing.
See that no one returns evil for evil; rather, always seek what is good both for each other and for all.
So who are our enemies? Those who are trying to get us off the path of God.
Ex of today on the golf course… not my enemy.
We pray for our enemies because we want them to know Christ!
Who is Christ talking about?
The Romans,
the Jews who will persecute the Church, like Saul.
The same people that put Christ to death will put his disciples to death.
We do not wish anyone go to Hell, because of the torments there, that we do not even want our worst enemies going there. Is it that bad?
A place with no love, no God, where demons own and run the place? Yea, it’s that bad.
The exorcist movie had one demon… bad enough, right?!
Has anyone done anything so awful to me that I would wish them there…for eternity?!?!?
I don’t want to condemn anyone to that kind of fate.
“I would rather them be converted and live.” - Ezekiel 33:10-11
Especially when I look at the cross and see what our Lord went through, and He didn’t condemn anyone, but rather, invited people into friendship and conversion to Him.
As for you, son of man, speak to the house of Israel: You people say, “Our crimes and our sins weigh us down; we are rotting away because of them. How can we survive?” Answer them: As I live—oracle of the Lord God—I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! Why should you die, house of Israel?
You forgave your persecutors, Christ. You forgave your persecutors. “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
If Christ has mercy on us, then we ought, we must have mercy on our enemies, ready to forgive as soon as they repent of their wickedness.
A brilliant quote from Chesterton is: "Children are innocent and love justice, while most adults are wicked and prefer mercy."
Our enemies aren’t just competitors or sports rivals, but those who hate our way of life as Catholics, people who resent us as a people and despise our God, Jesus Christ.
Think about the 70 people in Congo, Libya that were just killed.
Think about how the FBI was targeting traditional Catholics for being in the way of their aims … even within the Catholic Church we are skeptical of each other.
“Christ desires that all be saved and come to the knowledge of the Truth.” - 1 Tim 2:4
Don’t judge!
Don’t judge!
2nd part of the Gospel - don’t judge lest ye be judged.
Narrow understanding of judging - “I judge, because I make judgements.”
For Example, look at her sweater, look how dumb it is! That doesn’t go with those pants….doesn’t go with anything, frankly.”
That’s not what it means in the Greek.
Κρίνο- Stop condemning, stop damning, stop separating! Κρινο.
condemning in Greek δικέ judgment punishment vengeance
judging, but not so much with making judgements about people, it means sitting on a judge’s bench and handing out eternal sentences, and bad ones! We can’t see into the hearts of people. When we are threatened to send someone to the eternal lake of fire… send them to heaven instead.
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Divine Mercy Chaplet
Pray for God’s Mercy to be shown to this person, that you may have cause for rejoicing.
When you don’t like someone, to the point where you don’t want to be their neighbor for ever in heaven, pray a chaplet that you and they come a little closer to God. And if they are on the road to Hell for their bad lifestyle, pray a Chaplet for them. It takes 8 minutes. That way, when you encounter them again, you can look them in the eye and know that you have loved them, and that God is using them to make you a saint. Look what St. Faustina wrote (1074-5):
“Tell the world about My Mercy and Love!
Tell, my daughter, aching mankind to snuggle close to my merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace. Tell them, that I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls. Souls who spread the honor of my mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them but the Merciful Savior. At that last hour, a soul has nothing with which to defend itself except My Mercy. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it!”
Divine Mercy, better than the heavens,
I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, source of miracles and wonders,
I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, encompassing the whole universe,
I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, shielding us from the fire of hell,
I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, converting hardened sinners,
I trust in You.
Divine Mercy, sweet relief for anguished hearts,
I trust in You.
“Habla al mundo de Mi misericordia, de Mi amor
Cuando un alma se acerca a Mi con confianza, la colmo con tal abundancia de gracias que ella no puede contenerlas en sí misma, sino que las irradia sobre otras almas.
A las almas que propagan la devocion a Mi misericordia, las protejo durante toda su vida como una madre cariñosa [protege] a su niño recién nacido y a la hora de la muerte no seré para ellas Juez sino Salvador misericordioso. En esta última hora el alma no tiene nada en su defensa fuera de Mi misericordia. Feliz el alma que durante la vida se ha sumergido en la Fuente de la Misericordia, porque no la alcanzará la justicia.”
Divina Misericordia, mejor que los cielos,
en Ti confío
Divina Misericordia, fuente de milagros y prodigios,
en Ti confío
Divina misericordia, que envuelve todo el universo,
en Ti confío
Divina Misericordia, escudo contra el fuego del infierno,
en Ti confío
Divina misericordia, convirtiendo a los pecadores,
en Ti confío
Divina Misericordia, dulce alivio para los corazones angustiados,
en Ti confío
