That gold standard is nothing other than the way God loves us. It’s a love that has a universal scope, that can include enemies. It continues to burn whatever the situation and condition may be. It takes the initiative to love, not waiting for some favorable circumstances to come.
As St. Paul describes it in that famous hymn of love, it “is patient, it is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. It does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” (1 Cor 13,4-7)
Christ talked about this kind of love when he said, “You have heard that it has been said, You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you.” (Mt 5,43-44)
And he proceeded to describe this love by practically making it as the mark of human and Christian perfection, because he concluded this indication by saying: “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5,48)
We need to prepare ourselves to follow this commandment expressly articulated by Christ. We have to have a strong faith to trust his words, so that we would not consider them as a mere bluff, an empty puffy rhetoric, but rather as what is true, proper and ideal for us.
This is, of course, a tremendous challenge for us to tackle. We most likely would be tempted to think whether this ideal of human and Christian love, practically a unicorn, is ever possible and achievable.
But that’s the truth of our faith. We just have to believe it and try our best to conform ourselves to such truth. We just have to content ourselves with the thought that this ideal can only be achieved in its ultimate form through the grace of God to which we have to correspond in the best way we can.
Definitely, we need to train ourselves to continually albeit slowly approach that ideal. Some discipline is needed. Some appropriate plans, strategies and practices are needed.
We need to learn how to expand our heart to make it more and more universal in scope. This can mean how to deal with the usual differences and conflicts we unavoidably would encounter in our relation with others.
Definitely, we need to be patient and hopeful, and kind of sport about the usual drama in life where there will always be things beyond our control. We have to learn to take certain things in stride. If need be, we should just roll with the punches.
Every day, we have to make another step of progress in the art of loving our enemies. It could be in the area of patience, or in the skill of finding the saving grace of a person who otherwise is full of defects, or the virtue of hope and optimism. Opportunities to grow in these virtues will always be at hand. We need to seize every chance we have to grow in them.
We have to convince ourselves that all the effort needed for this would be all worthwhile. It will surely unleash the power of God’s grace and actualize the hidden potentials in our life. (Fr. Roy Cimagala)
