Tuesday of the Eleventh Week in Ordinary Time

Lectionary: 366

You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

So far as I know, the Bible nowhere says we should hate our enemies. But we certainly learn such lessons from that generic religion we all pick up along the way. It's right there with the Lord helps those who help themselves.  Not in the Bible, nor the Catechism. 

But yes, the Book of Leviticus insists, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." and then underlines the teaching with a Godlike oath: "I am the LORD." 

You'll recall the abashed critic in Saint Luke's gospel asked the Lord, "So who is my neighbor?" and was given the parable of the Good Samaritan. In today's gospel from Matthew's Sermon on the Mount, Jesus highlights his teaching with two familiar truisms, "...for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust."

But today's climate news throws a different light on Jesus's sanguine belief in his Father's management of sun and rain. Nature, it seems, cannot be bothered with considerations about human affairs. The Earth, seen as an enormous machine driven by its own momentum and juiced with sunlight, cares not a whit for wealth or poverty. The worst impact of global warming maybe on impoverished neighborhoods and tropical regions, but that's not Mother Nature's problem.

Nor is there a Gaia principle to assure the survival of life on earth. Should all life perish, and "Mother Nature" be exposed as a goddess who never existed, the earth will not lose its standing among the planets, stars, or galaxies. They also, cannot be bothered. By any secular standard we are quite alone in an indifferent universe, and the mess we're making of our world is fatal and irreversible. 

However, Jesus's teaching about the benevolence of the sun and rain relies neither on an insight into nature's superfluous generosity nor a Gaia principle, but on his faith in your heavenly father. Marching toward Jerusalem and expecting a hostile reception, he was sure that the LORD would not abandon him. Nor did arrest, condemnation, torture, and his final agony break his conviction. Not even death could overcome a faith that shines in darkness. 

   

In the face of an overheated planet and a worsening climate the priest intones, "Our help is in the name of the Lord!" To which the people respond, "...who made heaven and earth!" 

Things may get a lot worse, but the Word of the Lord endures forever. He will not abandon us.