REALIZATIONS

“I can’t Breath” and “Say their names” is the chant that alerts us to a realization that really evil and hateful people have lived and still exist.  A realization highlighted by the most recent unexplained hangings in the town square and the news report of a black man shot in the back.  We know evil exists by the continuing practice of genocide, wars & terrorism, gouging the poor, disenfranchising those seeking to be self-governed, piling up goods without thought people on the margins, and lying to keep themselves in power.

Evil has a ripple effect, one felt for many generations after Ahab and Jezebel.  Many would applaud Elijah’s promise of God’s punishment of Ahab and Jezebel. “But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you . . . (Mt 5:44) be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48)

Jesus recasts the old law and offers us another way to look at those who are “enemy” to us and the world. We aren’t asked to “be God” but rather to be as perfect in our loving as God is, who makes the sunshine and rain come down equally on the just and unjust.

Jesus puts before us the example of our heavenly parent and demands we act toward others, as God acts toward each of us. This is a startling challenge. God does not weigh whether we deserve sun or rain, He acts with integrity and unconditional graciousness—independent of whether we are just or unjust. That’s God’s perfection.[1]

Our nation is amidst some great realizations of how individual sin had a communal effect.  The pandemic is making us realize we really are not in control and that the only thing we have control of is how we embrace our personal behavior to avoid its spreading further.  The protests bring the realization that while great strides have been made in race relations in the U.S. racism is still prevalent within individuals, within family cultures, and institutionalized into business, political, and enforcement systems. The riots and violence against law enforcement officers and community businesses helps us realize that evil still has a voice in our nation and it takes advantage of every opportunity to divide even God-fearing people.

How, then, are we to love? We must pray for our enemies, for God’s grace in their lives, for a change of heart for them (and for us). We must come to realize how our own stereotypes and prejudices can divide the world between supposed good and bad people, how our inclination for justifying actions through  the practice of competing victimization that expects the punishment of the bad according to our desires, or for gaining reparation or simply for revenge.

We must be inclusive, welcoming, acknowledging God’s potential within each person. Jesus says we are to live and respond differently than what our nature might dictate. It’s not easy! Paraphrasing C.S. Lewis, we don’t love others because they are lovable but because God is love—and we are expected to love as God loves. How are we doing?[2]

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[1] Weekday HomilyHelps. Exegesis by Dr. Mary Ann Getty.

[2] Ibid. Homily Suggestion by Leota Roesch.