Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Gregory the Great on Praying for our enemies

Remembering what Hippolytus said in the previous post and Christians and the military, I read this reading today (Sept 3 celebrates Gregory the Great) from a homily from Gregory the Great. To me this reading calls us as Christ followers to question how we involve ourselves in politic of war.

When our hearts are reluctant we often have to compel ourselves to pray for our enemies, to pour out prayer for those who are against us. Would that our hearts were filled with love! How frequently we offer a prayer for our enemies, but do it because we are commanded to, not out of love for them. We ask the gift of life for them even while we are afraid that our prayer may be heard. The judge of our soul considers our hearts rather than our words. Those who do not pray for their enemies out of love are not asking anything for their benefit.
But suppose they have committed a serious offense against us? Suppose they have inflicted losses on those who support us, and have hurt them? Suppose they have persecuted our friends? We might legitimately keep these things in mind if we had no offense of our own to be forgiven.
Jesus, our advocate, has composed a prayer for this situation and in this case the One who pleads our case is also our judge. There is a condition he has inserted in the prayer he composed which reads: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Since our advocate is the One who comes to be our judge, his is listening to the prayer he himself composed for our use. Perhaps we the words: “Forgive our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” without carrying them out, and thus our words bind us more tightly; or perhaps we omit the condition in our prayer, and then our advocate does not recognize the prayer which he composed for us, and say to himself: “I know what I taught them. This is not the prayer I gave them.”
What are we to do then, my friends? We must bestow our love on our brothers and sisters. We must not allow any malice at all to remain in our hearts. May almighty God have regard for our love of our neighbor, so that He may pardon our iniquities! Remember what He taught us: Forgive, and you will be forgiven. People are in debt to us, and us to them. Let us forgive them their debts, so that what we owe may be forgiven.


Could it be that we have put our patriotism/nationalism before our "Christianism?"