Luke 6:27–38 ESV – Love Your Enemies – “But I say to you – Bible Gateway
This segment of the Gospel of Luke is the second of three parts of the Sermon on the Plain as divided up in the Lectionary. The reversals of the beatitudes continue on in also reversing worldly and individualist claims. We desire mercy for ourselves but are less prone to give mercy to others. Jesus points out this aspect out in The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew where a servant is forgiven an unrepayable debt, yet refuses to forgive a small debt to a fellow servant. In Luke the theme of mercy is constant and as St. Pope John Paul II points out in (Dives in Misericordia, Rich in Mercy), Luke’s Gospel “has earned the title of ‘the Gospel of mercy.’’
Today’s Gospel reading can be too easily dismissed as something unobtainable in everyday life. Something more aspirational than a guide to life. In reality, we should read this as something Peter Kreeft calls Jesus-Shock. We should be astonished by this as much as the original audience heard this. Jesus points out at the start concerning those who will “hear.” That listening is more than just taking in words, but making them active in your life.
Ultimately Jesus is calling us to love as he loves. To forgive as he forgives. To love and not to expect anything in return for it. What Jesus says in verse 31 is often called the Golden Rule, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” This has been elevated from the Silver Rule that we can find in multiple cultures to not do things to others that you would hate. A rule still focused on ourselves in a “go along to get along” prudential aspect. Jesus’ love is preemptive and does not wait for others to act, as our love should also be. St. John of the Cross wrote, “Where there is no love, put love and you will find love.”
In his commentary on this passage, Peter Kreeft points out how literalism can reduce our morality to a series of steps to be justified. The Pharisees literally declared how many steps you could walk on the Sabbath. So how do we take in these hard sayings and live them?
Peter Kreeft:
In today’s passage, we must be ready in our hearts to do all these radical deeds of love that Jesus speaks of literally if that is the most loving thing to do. Jesus is not exaggerating.
He is not asking us to check our reason at the church door. He gave us reason, and he expects us to use it. He also gave us agape love, and he expects us to use that too.
As St. Thomas Aquinas points out:
“Holy Scripture needs to be understood in the light of the example of Christ and the saints. Christ did not offer the other cheek to be struck in the house of Annas (Jn 18:22f), nor did St Paul when, as we are told in the Acts of the Apostles, he was beaten in Philippi (Acts 16:22f). Therefore, we should not take it that Christ literally meant that you should offer the other cheek to someone to hit you; what he was referring to was your interior disposition; that is, if necessary we should be ready not to be intolerant of anyone who hurts us, and we should be ready to put up with this kind of treatment, or worse than that. That was how the Lord acted when he surrendered his body to death” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Comm. on St John, 18, 37).
Again, the lives of the saints are an authentic interpretation of scripture. This aspect of mercy to others is so important that Jesus made it part of his prayer, the Our Father.
The last part of today’s passage is one that it seems everybody knows, but few understand. Usually, only the first part “Judge not, and you will not be judged” is referenced as a rebuke to Christians. There are also many times when we deserve such a rebuke. Still, when used to represent a defense of moral relativism, it loses all meaning. This statement parallels the follow-on statement “condemn not, and you will not be condemned” to tease out the meaning. In the Vatican II document, Gaudium et spes, it says:
“God alone is the judge and the searcher of hearts; he forbids us to pass judgment on the inner guilt of others” (Vatican II, Gaudium et spes, 28).
We have no competence to judge the inner guilt of others. Often it is also the case that we can’t even judge our inner guilt regarding what we have done. St. Paul in 1 Corinthians wrote about not caring about others judging him and that he does not even judge himself. This does not mean that he did not examine his conscience, but ultimately, God alone truly understands us. Knowing our inability to truly judge ourselves and sift out all our motivations, we should see how morally dangerous it is to assign inner guilt to others.
One last point about this being used as a defense of moral relativism. Jesus commands us to forgive others.
As Brant Pitre points out:
You can’t forgive if someone has not done something wrong. So the very language of forgiveness presupposes absolute moral standards. Jesus is not a relativist. He’s a Jew. And he knows that there are commandments of God, and that to break those commandments is sinful, and to abide by those commandments is righteous. So, in context, the notion of forgiving someone else clearly presupposes right and wrong and the ability to judge actions; meaning, the ability to judge whether an action is right or wrong and in need of forgiveness or not.
References
- The Gospel of Luke, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture, Rev. Pablo T. Gadenz
- Navarre, Saint Luke’s Gospel (2005)
- Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings Year C
- Catholic Productions, Commentaries by Brant Pitre
