In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. In this morning’s Gospel from chapter 6 of the Gospel of Luke, Christ says, “As you wish that men will do to you, do so to them.” Now, the crowds who are listening to Christ that they immediately recognized the difference between what he was saying to them and what they grew up hearing from their Jewish rabbis. The traditional Jewish rabbinical teaching was this, “You should not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.” This is a negative teaching. In other words, telling you what not to do or how not to behave.
Christ turns this into a positive teaching by saying, “No, that’s not enough. It’s not enough not to do to others what you would not want them to do to you. Christ commands that you must proactively do to others what you would want them to do to you.” Do you see the difference? Christ takes it further.
Not only is it not enough to avoid doing bad things to others, but we must go out of our way to do good things for others. And most especially to those who don’t love us or don’t do good to us. In fact, listen to what Christ says. If you only love those who love you, what credit is that to you for even sinners do the same?
And if you only do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you for even sinners do the same? In other words, there is no grace to be found when you only love or do good to those who love and do good to you. There is no grace to be found in that because Christ says even sinners do the same. What benefit or credit is that to you?
I was visiting someone recently in prison. And as I was walking out, a bunch of his cell mates walked out to greet me. We had some small talk and then they said to me, “Don’t worry, Father. We will take good care of him.” They promised that they would watch over him.
So even those in prison, even criminals, they know how to love and take care of those who love and take care of them. And that’s why there is no grace for us or credit to use the words of our Savior when we do good to those who do good to us because even sinners do the same. Christ then was on to say something very radical to the Jews who were listening to him. Again, they grew up hearing one thing from their rabbis.
They grew up hearing an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But Christ says, “Love your enemies and do good and lend. Expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high. Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.” Now before we talk about loving our enemies, we must come to the realization that we do not even love our own families, our own relatives, our own co-workers, our own friends, our fellow church members.
Before we speak about our enemies, let’s speak about those that we see and deal with on a daily basis. And if we cannot love those closest to us, if we cannot love our relatives, our friends, the people in our own church, this means that the sinners that Christ mentions are even better than us because at least they can love and do good But to those who love and do good to them, Lord have mercy. We must confess that we can’t even do that. Look deep into your heart and ask, do I truly love my husband, my wife, my parents, my children, my in-laws, my siblings, my relatives, my co-workers, my employees, my fellow parishioners?
Am I the first to forgive or ask for forgiveness, do I speak gentle words to them? Do I lift up and encourage or do I tear down, do I discourage and demoralize, am I patient or do I lose my temper rather quickly, do I deny myself and my desires and my needs and my ego for them or do I put myself first? How can I love my enemies if I do not even love those in my own family? Another question to ask is what is my motivation behind the love that I offer others and the good things that I do?
Is it so that they can return their favor and love me back and do good to me? We must be very careful and very alert to the movements of our heart and realize our self-centeredness and our selfishness. Our Lord commands that we freely offer our love to all people expecting nothing at all in return. You love all people with no strings attached, even if they do not love you.
Christ says in the Gospel of Matthew, “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” That may sound crazy. We may ask ourselves, “What? Why would Christ say something like that? Doesn’t it open us up to ridicule?
Doesn’t it open us up to pain and vulnerability being taken advantage of? Doesn’t it open up to abuse? Yes, it does. It does open us up to all of those things, but at the same time, it opens us up to the greatest gift of all, the grace of God.
God’s grace can only come to us when we deny ourselves and take up our cross and lose our life for the sake of Christ and the Gospel. And denying ourselves and taking up our cross means that we embrace any and every type of suffering that may come our way, no matter who the source of that suffering is. If you only love one who loves you or only do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? There is no grace in that.
There is no grace. And even if there is any grace, it’s not even worth mentioning. Christ says, “What credit is that to you?” They are His words, not mine. Even sinners do the same.
Now I want you to imagine your worst enemy. And if you are one of those people that says, “And many people say this, I have no enemies. Everybody loves me.” I want you to imagine the person that you cannot stand the most, the person that gets on your nerves the most, whoever they are. They could be family, relative, friend, co-worker, fellow parishioner.
Now have that person in mind, and I want you to listen to this because it is the truth. That person that you have in mind is your greatest source of grace. That person is your greatest source of grace. I’m going to explain that, but let me offer you a personal example first.
After a week and a half ago, I was with my two sons here in the church office, and we needed to leave by a certain time to pick up my mother-in-law from the airport. Between their homework and trying to figure out what they were going to have for dinner, they were running a little bit late. I had a choice to make. I could either remain calm and speak to them lovingly or lose my patience and scold them in a mean way.
Unfortunately, I chose the latter. I lost my patience, and by losing my patience, I lost grace. Any grace of God that I had in me, I lost it because I lost my patience. Not only did I lose grace, but I caused my children to lose grace because they in turn lost their patience with me.
It would have been easy for me to be kind to them if they were doing exactly what I wanted them to do. But again, where is the grace in that? God’s grace. Listen to this, God’s grace is to be found in the way I respond when things are not going my way and people are not behaving the way I want them to behave.
Not only are these opportunities for grace for us personally, but they become opportunities for grace for others as well. By losing my patience with my boys, they lost their patience as well. Instead of drawing them closer to God, I pushed them away farther from him. If I were patient and I spoke kindly to them, not only would I have received grace, but that grace would have been so much.
That grace would have been so abundant that they will have received that grace as well. And this is the essence of the teaching of St. Cyr from Serove when he says, “If you acquire the Holy Spirit, a thousand around you will be saved. If I truly love my family, I will do everything in my power to afford them every opportunity to receive God’s grace, not to take it from them.” That night I reflected and I said before my icon, “I do not love my children because I deprive them of grace.
Do I really love them? That I would be patient, that they might remain patient, that they might receive grace as well. I would do everything in my power.“ And this is just one small example of the everyday opportunities that we have in our interactions with family, relatives, friends, co-workers, and today with our fellow parishioners. These opportunities that can become potential sources of grace, not only for us, but for others as well.
Now it could be that one day your husband did not take out the garbage. Your wife did not make dinner. Your mother-in-law or your daughter-in-law said something not so nice about you. It could be that your child did not clean their room or put away their clothing.
Or your mom or dad took away your phone, or your video games, or they limited your screen time. Your employee may have been slacking off that day, or your co-worker took all the credit and got that promotion that you were looking for. It could be that later today a fellow parishioner may not greet you, may walk right past you and ignore you. It’s at that point that that person, whoever they are, can be considered your enemy, even if it’s for a brief moment because that person has not become the target of your anger and your frustration.
So they have become your enemy for all intents and purposes, even if it’s just for a few moments. And this is exactly where grace is to be found. When you choose to respond in a loving, kind, patient, gentle, humble, thankful, merciful way, it’s these small things that happen on a daily basis that we must take advantage of because they contain an immeasurable amount of grace. You have no idea the grace behind loving and doing good to those who do not love you or do good to you.
Even if it’s for a brief moment, the immeasurable amount of grace contained in your response, potential response as long as it is good and holy, not only for you, but for your family. Do you want the grace of God in your house? Do you want it to be upon your children? Do you want it to be in your workplace?
Do you want it to be in school? Then you love and you do good to all, no matter what they say or do, in God’s grace will be upon you immeasurably and upon your family. Finally, my beloved family, let me say this. Our enemies or the people that frustrate us the most, family or not, become in our spiritual life our greatest ally because they become the doorway to grace and therefore to Christ and the kingdom.
When we struggle to love our enemies, we attract God’s grace like a magnet. Without them, we cannot be saved. They enable our purification. They enable our sanctification.
They enable us to grow in holiness. Without them, there is none of that. They become the key that opens the gates of paradise. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen.