Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. One of the struggles in modern warfare is that the enemy doesn’t always dress like an enemy. When the US fought against Iraq and Afghanistan, the armies of the two countries knew that they couldn’t resist the US military by fighting on equal terms, where one military fights another in open combat. So many soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan fought without any uniforms and without any direct ties to a military chain of command. They would look and act like regular civilians until they were able to inflict great harm by IEDs and surprise attacks. This frustrated the US military because we didn’t want to kill innocent civilians, and yet the military often couldn’t identify opposing forces because they often acted individually or in small groups, and looked the same as innocent civilians.
Now, it is true that humans can often support policies and practices that give aid to our real enemy, Satan and his fallen angels. Over the past decade individual people and groups of people have tried to redefine marriage from how God created it; have tried to say that our right to practice our faith ends at the doors of the church; have sown confusion about the ways our body helps us understand who we are as male or female; have continued the lie that an unborn child is simply part of the mother’s body; etc. And we should work to make sure that a distorted view of the human person does not spread by engaging in clear and convincing arguments that show the lies to be harmful to individuals and society as a whole.
But the politician on the other side of the aisle, or the neighbor who posts the nonsense signs that say “Love is love,” they are not my enemy. They are my brother or sister in error, and I don’t have to support or enable their error, but they are not my enemy.
St. Augustine of Hippo wrote a beautiful reflection on those who no longer taught the same thing as the Catholic Church on baptism, and wanted to rebaptize Catholics, which is a heretical position. The text is long, but worth hearing:
If they say, “Why do you seek us? What do you want of us?” We should reply: You are our brothers. They may say, “Leave us alone. We have nothing to do with you.” But we have everything to do with you, for we are one in our belief in Christ; and so we should be in one body, under one head.
And so, dear brothers, we entreat you on their behalf, in the name of the very source of our love…in the name of Christ our Lord and his gentle love. For it is time now for us to show them great love and abundant compassion by praying to God for them. May he one day give them a clear mind to repent and to realize that they have nothing now but the sickness of their hatred, and the stronger they think they are, the weaker they become. We entreat you then to pray for them, for them are weak, given to the wisdom of the flesh, to fleshly and carnal things, but yet they are our brothers….And so pour out your hearts for them in prayer to God
The Doctor of Grace doesn’t say that their error doesn’t matter. He doesn’t pretend that false teaching is true. But he still says that they are our brothers and encourages us to pray for them. And he does this because he knows that they are not truly our enemy. The enemy is the one who encourages them to believe lies to be truth. And that enemy cannot be defeated by force of arms, but by prayer and the love and grace of God.
So who do you fight? It is an earthly enemy? If so, you’re wasting time and energy. By all means, correct with truth, but don’t treat those who disagree as enemies, but as misinformed brothers and sisters. And not in an arrogant way, not looking down on them. But truly caring for them and wanting their conversion of heart so that they can live in the truth and go to heaven.
And when it comes to those who oppose us, be ready to forgive. I often say that forgiveness, especially of enemies, is one of the most difficult teachings of our Lord. Because when someone harms us we want to get them back. Or we at least want them to make good on what they owe us according to our understanding of justice. But look at the parable: the master forgives the steward a great debt, but the steward cannot forgive small debts. The mercy of the master should have changed the heart of the steward to likewise engage in mercy. But when the master heard how harshly the steward treated those with smaller debts, he gave the same measure of justice to the steward, rather than the mercy the steward desired and had originally obtained.
God has acted so mercifully with us. He forgives us large debt, especially the debt of sin that Christ took upon Himself. The penalty for sin is death, but Christ died so that we wouldn’t have to die. There is no greater debt that we could ever owe. And yet, when someone, especially someone we consider an enemy, offends us, are we as quick to forgive them as we want God to be quick to forgive us?
Make sure you know who your real enemy is and how to fight that enemy. The enemy wants to distract us and make us think that our brothers and sisters who are not exactly like us are our enemies. But we will waste time and energy shadowboxing against fake enemies, and miss out on opportunities for conversion or reversion. Fight our true spiritual enemies with prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, connecting yourself to the one who has conquered sin and death and is forever victorious: Jesus Christ, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit is God for ever and ever. Amen.
