First thing every morning tell yourself: today I am going to meet a
busybody, an ingrate, a bully, a liar, a schemer, and a boor. Ignorance of good
and evil has made them what they are. But I know that the good is by nature
beautiful and the bad ugly, and I know that these wrongdoers are by nature my
brothers, not by blood or breeding, but by being similarly endowed with reason
and sharing in the divine.
These are words that Marcus Aurelius wrote in his book of meditations some
two thousand years ago.
There are two reasons I’m quoting an ancient Roman emperor this Sunday.
First, because of the similarity between his thoughts and those we hear
in today’s Gospel.
If you compare the wisdom of Jesus with that of Marcus Aurelius, who was
renowned as a philosopher and ruler, you will see that Our Lord is not teaching
something that’s only relevant for Christians. The man or woman who is not at
the mercy of unpleasant people, of ungrateful people, even of treacherous people,
is truly free.
Marcus Aurelius says that these unpleasant and even evil people cannot
harm us because they can’t force us to do wrong against our will. Treating our
enemies better than they treat us expresses our autonomy and integrity and
spares us anger and resentment.
The second reason is the profound difference between the Emperor’s
meditation and Christ’s teaching. The Roman philosopher was a stoic, someone
who believed that wisdom and the path to happiness was found by self mastery,
submitting to the natural law, and enduring the circumstances of life.
While these concepts are not foreign to Christians, compare what Marcus
Aurelius writes to what Jesus says about meeting evil with good. Philosophy
offers a way to bear the burdens of living with difficult and dishonest people;
Jesus shows us how to transform them and ourselves.
And he does so by turning the Old Testament law of justice into his own
law of love. It is one of the most important revelations in the New Testament.
The philosophy of the ancients was based on reason; but what we have heard
today seems not only unreasonable but impossible.
However, as Jesus says elsewhere, nothing is impossible for God.
The Lord’s wisdom is not meant to be separated from grace. Marcus
Aurelius could not help the reader follow his advice, while Jesus—through the Holy
Spirit—fills our hearts with the love we show those who wrong us. What’s more,
he rewards us for our efforts to live the law of love.
And that’s not all. Even as wise and respected an emperor as Marcus
Aurelius was not someone we would want to imitate. We’ve heard his wonderful
words about tolerating others, but his tolerance did not extend to Christians! They
were brutally martyred during his rule; he even criticized them for crying at
public executions and for failing to die like stoics.
Jesus, on the other hand, became the living proof of his own words.
There are various examples of this but none better than when he prayed on the
cross for forgiveness of his executioners.
I’m fighting a nasty cold I picked up during my travels last week—nasty enough
that every time I tested for Covid I was disappointed at the negative result!
But I think it’s enough of an excuse to end this homily with its simple
summary: Love your enemies is earthly wisdom that brings us inner peace and divine
guidance that brings us a heavenly reward.
So however ‘impossible’ it may seem, let us do our best to be perfect as
our Heavenly Father is perfect.
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