My enemy has my ticket to heaven!

Forgiving another person is difficult. We have to give up something, go against our ideals, let down others while forgiving one, and learn to handle the feeling of being defeated. Forgiving is also learning to handle our ego without feeling humiliated.

Now adding one’s enemy into the picture complicates things because without forgiving our enemy, we can’t think of loving them. Jesus is challenging us to find the real meaning of love. Love is unconditional and sacrificial. But for us, practising this with one’s enemy is next to impossible.

We live in a world where we will readily accept a disaster if the same has come upon a neighbour or enemy. It is also a fact that sun and rain come upon everyone and cannot be regulated for a few. Jesus is not only challenging us but being very matter of fact when in St. Luke 6:27-28, he says, “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.”

Loving our enemy does not mean that our enemy, those who hate us, curse us, and abuse us, have become good or that we must see them as good. Rather, we are trying to love them despite knowing that they are intrinsically bad.

Lent is a time to challenge ourselves to do something which even challenges our very core. When we hate someone so much, we forget that they could be our neighbour in paradise. Imagine God telling us that we have been awarded a place in heaven. The only catch is that the ticket is with our enemy! Amen.