We have a newly-ordained Dominican priest in Papua New Guinea. On the day of his ordination he was 51 years old; you might say he had a long journey to the priesthood. Fr Augustine is from Bougainville, and was in his late teens and early 20s during the conflict there. That’s the secessionist conflict of the late-1980s and 1990s, in which around 15,000 people lost their lives. We shall see how sovereignty emerges for Bougainville: they’ve had a referendum with an overwhelming result; there’s a draft constitution doing the rounds; and the national government is still talking. So there are good signs.
Why I mention Fr Augustine is because of where he chose to celebrate his first Mass. Many new priests choose to have their Mass of Thanksgiving in their home parish. Before they set off on the mission which the Church has given them, new priests often return home to honour their father and mother in person. Fr Augustine didn’t go home for his first Mass; he went to the police college not far from our priory in Port Moresby. He said: “Many of these men fought in the war. I want them to know forgiveness.” I wonder if the Lord’s words came to Fr Augustine’s mind at the end of Mass: “Bless those who persecute you; pray for those who treat you badly”.
By “enemies” the Lord has violent offenders in mind. The disciples would have called them “Romans”. Fr Augustine can tell which side of the conflict this or that person was on. It's plainly obvious to us who our enemy is; we don't have to look hard for them if we have one. The kinds of people we’re being asked to love are those who kill off family members, who make ordinary life all but impossible, a living death. The enemies of Christians indiscriminately destroy good and bad. The Lord says, love them.
Everyone we meet is to be loved, but not all of them fall into the “love your enemies” group. Most are “love your neighbour” people. But what of someone we know to be a bully, traitor, gossip, cheater, or villain? The enemy isn’t someone who drives us crazy. The enemy is someone who drives us to despair. The Lord says, love them.
I hope you’ve never had an enemy or will have one. If you don’t have one, this is your chance to pray for those who do. Their enemy is never far away; they can come to mind at any stray moment and cause trouble. If you’ve never had an enemy, those of us who have need your strength and prayerfulness now.
If you have had an enemy or have one now, I want to reassure you that at Mass you’re safe and among friends. We’re here praying for you and for them. May the Lord strengthen you so that you can love them. Your enemy already has reasons to hate you. Those reasons are based in ignorance: they don’t know you well enough to hate you; if they knew you well enough, they’d love you, because everyone is loveable. Because your enemy already has reasons to hate you, don’t give them another one by failing to love them now.
We’re praying your enemy will have a change of heart to become an ever-loving, joyful, peaceful person. We want the Holy Spirit to fall upon them, not to harm them in any way but to change them. The Holy Spirit is fire; we hope he will purify them and prepare them for holiness. The Holy Spirit is life; we pray he will breathe new life into them and thus create them anew.
By teaching us to love our enemies, the Lord hasn’t given us here a lesson in conflict resolution. We find that elsewhere in the Gospels. Rather, he’s given us formation: he’s changing us, making us the kind of people others can live with. Let that begin not with those who already love us, but with those who really don’t. This is a test of your faith, a challenge to your claim to be a Christian. But this is no time to lay down your cross; the Lord himself loves you and wants you to be with him. He has a place for each of us in his procession to Calvary, and a place for each of us in Heaven.
Like Christ, we love our enemies from our cross and pray for them. Like Christ, we hope to rise up with our former enemies to new life in the Holy Spirit who is the love of the Father and the Son, to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Fr Paul Rowse, OP Parish Priest