On Loving Your Enemies

If you don’t love your enemies you’re not a Christian. Also, if you don’t have enemies, you’re probably not a Christian.

Apathy is not a path to sainthood. You don’t get to heaven by shrugs.

Catholicism is not the religion of nice. We’re not the go-along to get along guys. We’re the stand up to the darkness guys. We are called to be counter-cultural.

When we send our children to leftist schools we are forging the enemies’ weapons.

I remember the Bible pretty well. And I remember all the parts about being told to love. We were also commanded to forgive (I recall there was math involved there so I’m not very clear on that part.) There was also that business about preaching the gospel and not hiding your light under a bushel.

But I don’t seem to remember the prohibition against offending others. When did Jesus prioritize that? Sadly, it seems to me that we have become #generationbushel. We prize being nice and polite over evangelizing truth.

Catholicism is not supposed to be the religion of nice. We recite The Apostles Creed, not the Profession of Acquiescence. Truth must be prioritized at some point. And truth has sharp edges.

Shepherds should not play nice with the wolves gathering around the sheep. The shepherds staff is for guiding the sheep AND beating away attackers.

Let’s be honest, in today’s day and age, being culturally sensitive means being apathetic about killing children in the womb. Being tolerant nowadays means believing that God has nothing to say about gender or sexuality. Faithful Catholic colleges don’t preach the tenets of apathy and relativism. They teach and preach truth. We can clearly see the effects of their admirable work in the pro-life movement which has scores and scores of graduates from faithful Catholic colleges and universities.

Nice, polite, and easy going isn’t what we’re called to be. Polite and nice does not mean good. Perfectly polite people can tell the Jews who came to their doors seeking shelter from Nazis, “No thank you.” They are merely polite accomplices of evil. I’m sure some people would say thank you if you held the door at Planned Parenthood. Polite doesn’t cut it. Nice isn’t enough. Being good requires courage. Faithfulness is countercultural. Doing good is difficult and often provokes a response. Jesus didn’t do nuance. He didn’t shade the truth.

A time is coming when our enemies will amass and call for us to be banished, disappeared, arrested or worse. This is the way. The time is not far off. You will be called to cheer the darkness. Love your enemies but denounce the darkness.