Love Your Enemies - A Short Sunday Homily

"Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you," turn the other cheek, says Jesus, and it sounds a bit like a pacifist manifesto, but isn't. Our Lord is not issuing a divine command to the Joint Chiefs of Staff forbidding the use of lethal force in a just war or self-defense. He is ordering us to love our enemies, which means willing what's good for them and acting accordingly.

This doesn't mean we've got to like or agree with them, much less feel romantically inclined towards them, but we must will and act in their best interest as opposed to lashing out in wrathful hate-filled vengeance upon them when they attempt to destroy us. So tempting, don't do it. Our Lord sums up the spirit of the thing:

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven..."

 

Love, mercy,  forgiveness. Divine values which conform our hearts to the heart of Christ, instead of the satanic anti-values, vices, of hatred, vengeance and wrath. Embrace the former. That in mind, a churchman came up to me after Mass and said:

"Father LSP, I've thought a lot about those verses and know them by heart, but here's the thing. A few years back someone stole all the tools out of the back of my truck in Itasca," bear in mind, readers, that this is a contractor who needs those tools for his livelihood. He continued, "Well, we got his license plate on a game cam and reported it to the police, who did nothing."

"Huh," I replied, "That's entirely useless," and he agreed, "Right, so what we did was trace that plate to an address, a meth lab, loaded up with AR15s and shotguns and paid those boys a night time visit." I pondered the scene: 

Midnight, meth lab, pock-marked malfeasants cooking away under fluorescents with a shop full of stolen tools as our guys turn up, weapons hot, "What then?" My friend looked me in the eye and said, "They gave us our tools back. Was I wrong, Father?" I looked him right back in the eye and replied, "No, you were not. Good thing the place didn't blow up, eh?"

If you had told me, back in the early '90s, that I'd be a rural mission priest in North Central Texas some 30 years later, I'd have laughed. You know what? I'm not complaining.

Here Endeth The Lesson,

LSP

Kaboom

 

First it was pagers, those totally forgotten by everyone bar Hezbollah comms devices. There you are, in Beirut, fixing to page your ter pal and then, boom. Dam, who knew Mossad had rigged your pager to the Hezzy supply chain, but they had. Bad day for Hezzy, no doubt about it, but was it over, like Joe Biden or a bad Taylor Swift song? No, the op intensified.

Yesterday saw walkie talkies, cell phones, solar panels, radios, household appliances, you name it, all exploding on our Jihad pals in Lebanon. What can we say? A brilliant op, no doubt about it, and it reminds me, on a lesser scale, of a Sergeant back in the '80s.

Our convo went something like this: "There we were. We knew the shooter's location and his weapon. All we had to do was swap out his ammo with rounds that'd explode in the chamber. Boom, job well done. But command said no."

I guess that Irishman got lucky, Hezbollah? Not so much. RWA comments: "The way this operation combines truly malicious cruelty and personalized precision is real art, perfect terror attack. The demoralization alone must be worse than the kinetic impact."

Quite. Leaving aside the knotty issue of the safety of your electronic devices, will they explode if you post a mean tweet, what's your take on Israel's latest Lithium Offensive? Mine is this. If I were Israel facing an existential threat (Thank God you're not - Ed.) I'd go full on defeat the enemy, no holds barred. Pagers, walkie talkies, smart fridges, EVs, phones, tablets, wifi speakers, you name it, all fair game.

Point being, if you're in a state of war, see Israel Oct 7, do it to win. That said, does Operation Pager cross the line into unjust war and ethically invalidate itself. I don't think so, but you might. Feel free to disagree.

Advance to Contact,

LSP

High Church

Before

Spent last week teaching at the St. Michael's Conference, Southwest. The chapel was plain when we arrived, so we got it up higher; the young people prefer it that way. Thanks to Fr. Matkin for the transformation, excellent result.

After

The Conference is unashamedly trad -- no Pelosianite, priestess nonsense, just the Faith and, of course, worship was central, with daily Morning and Evening Prayer, Solemn High Mass, Compline, Benediction & Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Confession. I cunningly made mine before the event, but most of the kids (there were 69) make theirs during the week, often for the first time. There's great spiritual power in that.

LSP (center) at the Confiteor

The Cure D'Ars, who is the patron Saint of priests, tells us that when we go to Confession we 'draw the nails from the wounds of Christ'. A beautiful image, I always think.


After Evensong and dinner, the Conference splits into 'discussion groups'. By some strange coincidence, I was asked to lead the ones on guns, space aliens and cryptids.

'Guns' was simple - we like them, a lot, and approve of the Church's teaching on war, which prohibits priests from killing people. 'Drawing blood' was the old stricture but that didn't stop aggressive prelates, like Odo, from carrying clubs, maces and the odd surreptitious sword into action. 'Aliens' was easy too - the kids believed in them, for the most part. But do they get to heaven? Depends on how wicked they are, I suppose. For example, Jefferts Schori might find the process tricky. 

Genuflect, LSP

The Cryptids discussion was curious; lots of talk about the Chucacabra, whom most considered a mutated dog. Others thought it a new species, but all were agreed as to its animal nature. Altogether different from evil elves, which the Latino children believed in - strongly - and were almost too scared to talk about. No wonder.


They're evil dwarflike spirits who cause mischief around the house and, if not appeased, steal the souls of babies. Scary, so I reminded the kids of the power of prayer, Angelic protection and Our Lady's intercession.

Lift high the Cross

Then, all too soon, the Conference was over. Easily the most spiritually uplifting event I've experienced in years. Well needed, I can tell you.


God bless and be sure to stay away from the sinister dwarf/elf spirits.


LSP