Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time • Year C

In today’s first reading, David is given the resources to destroy his enemy. He is quoted in the passage as saying he would not do so because the enemy is the Lord’s “anointed.” David understood that his enemy had an intimate relationship with God.

In the second reading, St. Paul tells the community in Corinth—and he tells us—that we each “bear the image of the heavenly one.”

I think this is exactly the reason Jesus teaches us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us, to bless those who curse us and to pray for those who mistreat us.

Most of us probably do not have enemies or people who hate us. Some of us may have people who have cursed us. I think all of us have people who mistreated us in one way or another.

How do we respond? I don’t think Jesus wants us to be a sponge and not respond at all. He teaches us to respond as we would want others to respond when we have mistreated them. I think most of us can say we have mistreated others. How do I want people whom I have mistreated to respond to me? I would like them to respond with compassion and understanding. That is easy to say, but I would like them to see that for whatever reason I am weak and sinful at times.

There are two things that help me to respond with compassion and understanding, not that I am always successful. The first is to try to see the situation from the other person’s position. A few years ago, after a person very badly mistreated me, I found out he was professionally diagnosed as a sociopath. Even though I was tremendously hurt, it helped to put the whole situation in context and, as Jesus directed, to pray for him. We never know what happened in a person’s past or what is happening now in the person’s life. That understanding is crucial in helping us to respond with compassion when we are mistreated.

The second thing that helps me to respond with compassion when I am mistreated (again, not that I am always successful) is to remind myself of what I say to God everyday, several times a day: “Lord, forgive me the way I forgive others.” Do I really mean that, or do I just say it mechanically without reflecting on what I am saying?

I like to go even deeper. I strive to be aware that the other person may have been baptized and like all of us who have been baptized was anointed “Priest, Prophet and King”; and that the other person may have been confirmed and therefore, like all of us who have been confirmed, the person was anointed with the Holy Spirit.

It is not always easy, but by reflecting on Daniel’s response in not harming his enemy because the enemy was anointed and by reflecting on St. Paul’s comment that we each “bear the image of the heavenly one,” I am helped a great deal. Most importantly what helps me is reflecting on how Jesus responded to his enemies—that is, those who cursed him and those who mistreated him. “Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do.”

Five times at today’s Mass in response to the first reading we will say “The Lord is Kind and Merciful.” May the Eucharist which we share today nourish and strengthen us to reflect that kindness and mercy when we are mistreated.