We always have a choice as to how we are going to respond to a given situation. That is the beauty of the gift of freedom that we have been given. Our responses in challenging situations determines the direction that our lives will take and how we will be judged. Given our responses, are we a good and charitable person that is able to forgive and is known to be merciful as the heavenly Father is merciful or are we known to be a vengeful person who carries a grudge and always is looking to get even with anyone who has harmed them? We should be the person that determines how we are known by the choices that we make. We should not allow our enemies to determine how we are going to be known by reacting harshly, rashly without thinking, to a perceived wrong and repaying evil with evil. If we are truly “the children of God” then we need to act like God’s children in every situation. As a child of a merciful Father we need to be merciful. In proving that we are a child of God, who is love, we must choose love in every situation, even the difficult and challenging situations in which we have suffered harm from an enemy. We make the choice to love, forgive and be merciful because that is who we are and that is who we wish to remain. We should not let our enemies take that grace away from us.
St. Peter teaches us a way to live our new life in Christ and to show that we are truly God’s children: “Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, live soberly, and set your hopes completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Like obedient children, do not act in compliance with the desires of your former ignorance but, as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in every aspect of your conduct, for it is written, “Be holy because I am holy.” (1Peter 1,13-16) St. Paul speaks of our old self as the “first Adam” who was earthly and subject to natural desires and impulses. Our new self is fashioned in Christ as the “last Adam” as a spiritual being who is able to bear the image of the “heavenly one.” As a new person, reborn in Christ, the “last Adam”, we must strive for holiness and conduct ourselves as Jesus would in obedience to the merciful nature of the Father.
Peter continues in his teaching: “Now if you invoke as Father him who judges impartially according to each one’s works, conduct yourselves with reverence during the time of your sojourning, realizing that you were ransomed from your futile conduct, handed on by your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ as a spotless unblemished lamb.” (1Peter 1,17-19) During our “sojourn” here on earth we need to avoid “futile conduct” and conduct ourselves with reverence for this life that has been entrusted to us. It is futile to hold a grudge. Peter continues on in telling us what this reverent conduct would look like: “Since you have purified yourselves by obedience to the truth for sincere mutual love, love one another intensely from a pure heart. You have been born anew, not from perishable but from imperishable seed, through the living and abiding word of God.” Our love cannot be begrudging and hesitant but it must be intense, pure and sincere.
Finally, Peter concludes: “Finally, all of you, be of one mind, sympathetic, loving toward one another, compassionate, humble. Do not return evil for evil, or insult for insult; but, on the contrary, a blessing, because to this you were called, that you might inherit a blessing. For: “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep the tongue from evil and the lips from speaking deceit, must turn from evil and do good, seek peace and follow after it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears turned to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is agains evildoers.”” (1Peter 3,8-12)
We use the gift of our freedom as the children of God to choose to love, even our enemies. Our loving is not determined by situations but flows out of our new life in Christ. We choose to be the new person, formed after the image of the “last Adam”. We don’t let our enemies take away our gift of freedom or the peace that we have in knowing the Father’s mercy and grace. We don’t have to be like other “earthly beings” but we choose to live in a new spiritual way that is seen by the “intense” love we have for others. In that way, as Jesus says today to his disciples, “Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6,35f) As children of a merciful Father, let us follow in his way of love, for his grace has freed us and delivered us from our enemies grasp.