Saturday, June 20, 2020
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Vengeance
We hear this message often; yet it cannot be overstated. True love is one which exacts no payment or punishment. True love – this Law of Love which Jesus brings to us – does not sink to the depths of the abuser. My mother was fond of telling us: Do not sink to your opponent’s level. Be a lady/gentleman. Do not fight fire with fire. Kill you enemy with kindness. My mother was a good shepherd.
Today’s MAGNIFICAT Meditation is entitled “Do you Love Me?” and it is written by Fr. Julián Carrón, a professor of theology at the University of Milan. He writes: Our astonishment at Christ’s love for each of us dominates our life. Carrón proposes that there is a nothingness that constantly looms over every man, and that often makes him doubt that there is an answer that corresponds to the need for truth, for beauty, for justice, and for happiness in his heart, because nothing is able to totally fascinate him for long. Carrón writes that once God becomes overwhelming attractive to us, we begin to understand and even feel the depth of this kind of love born of suffering, resurrection and restoration. This is a love which cannot be turned away, nor can it be extinguished. God’s holiness reveals itself as a passionate love for his people [and] . . . all man’s frailty, his betrayal, all the dreadful possibilities of history are traversed by that question put to Peter on the lake that morning [after his resurrection], “Do you love me?”
How much do we love God? Enough to give up our petty fascination with payback and vengeance? Enough to feed his sheep? Enough to petition for our abusers?
Peter replies to Christ’s question: Yes, Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you. Carrón writes: In this free “yes” of the creature, in every circumstance of life, the glory of God echoes and is at work.
Imagine if we all might put aside our personal hurts – knowing that God knows all – and allow Christ to mediate our disagreements and our battles. Imagine what a world it might be. Imagine what happiness we might find.
When we say yes to putting aside our desire to retaliate, we give God our own Yes. The nothingness that constantly looms over every one of us is dispelled. And we begin to know the depths of a true love which does not tolerate or even recognize the desire to take revenge.
As we ponder what to do about those who scheme against us at work or even at home, as we contemplate how God stands plots on their heads to bring goodness out of harm, as we consider that every lesson the Spirit teaches is about inversion, we might want to take Jesus’ advice to us and pray for those who seek our end rather than ask for revenge. And as my mother so often reminded us when we struggled with praying for those negative or dangerous people who came into our own lives, we might want to begin by killing them with our kindness.
Image from: http://www.whatdidjesussay.com/14-anyone-can-love-their-friends-love-your-enemies-and-pray-for-them-jesus/
Adapted from a reflection written on May 29, 2009.
Cameron, Peter John. “Meditation of the Day.” MAGNIFICAT. 29.5 (2012). Print.
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