Last week we
noted that “Mother Teresa’s Prescription” included 10 tenets that followed St.
Paul’s advice rather closely. Tolerance was number 7. Paul says, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not
curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.” This
implies not only tolerance but empathy toward one another.
Jesus tells
us “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew
5:44). The New Living Translation of verse 12 says we should not “curse [our
enemies, instead]; pray that God will
bless them.” It is hard to pray a blessing on those who are mistreating us
and even harder to pray for those who are killing those we care about. We have
only to read the headlines of wars and atrocities to find plenty of opportunity
for praying for our enemies.
It is not
easy to look beyond the death and destruction caused by so many, too often in
the name of religion, and to pray for them. Not easy, but part of our life as
Pentecost people. I Peter 3:9 offers this advice: “Do not repay evil with evil
or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay
evil with blessing, because to this
you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”
Peter and
Paul are both reiterating our Lord’s mandate to “love one another, as I have
loved you”. Jesus loved us to the giving up of His life. As followers of the
One, we too are called to pray blessings
on all of God’s children. Like it or not, that means every man, woman, and
child on this planet! I wonder what the world would be like if we really tried
praying for those who ‘persecute’ us-whether in physical or mental ways. Might
it not be worth a try?
Matthew
Henry’s Concise Commentary notes that we cannot make distinctions about when
and how we pray and bless others. “Bless, and curse not. It means thorough good
will; not, bless them when at prayer, and curse them at other times; but bless
them always, and curse not at all. True
Christian love will make us take part in the sorrows and joys of each other.”
The second
part of this citation is really part of the same theme. “Rejoice
with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” says Paul
to the Romans. If we really have empathy and tolerance, then we not only pray
blessings for them, but we understand
their joys and sorrows. As the old saying goes, we “walk a mile in their shoes”
in order to see the world through their eyes. We might then feel the deep hurt
that causes a teenager to brutally murder a homeless man. Perhaps we would get
a glimpse of the devastating emptiness that makes a person take their own life.
With empathy we might see through the eyes of the fanatic who believes that
killing is the only way to cleanse the world. In trying to rejoice and weep
with the joys and sorrows of others, we might discover that those we name
‘different’ really aren’t so very different from us.
It is easy
to take up stones to throw at someone. Then Jesus looks at us and says,
“Let anyone
among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone”. We hesitate and realize that we are not without fault.
Like the men who wanted to stone the adulterous woman (John 8), we go “away,
one by one.” Then Jesus is left with the offender. In love we hear Him say “Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and
from now on do not sin again.” And He says the same to me and to you and to
the murderer and fanatic and thief.
With Christ
on the Cross we can and must pray “Father forgive, for they know not what they
do.” And we must pray for the courage, wisdom, empathy and tolerance to do so
and to pray blessings on those we fear and even hate.
Next time we'll take a look at Harmony and end the series with Humility.
