Homily: Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
The Most Difficult Demands of Love: Forgiving Our Enemies
By William Holtzinger
Feb. 22, 2004

The1995 movie, “Dead Man Walking” portrays the story of Sister Helen Prejean, a Sister of St. Joseph, and her relationship with a criminal named Robert Willie and one of his victims, Debbie Morris. Willie and a friend of his were convicted of going on an eight-day crime spree in which they kidnapped three eighteen-year-olds.  They molested and murdered one girl, sexually assaulted another and beat up a third. Debbie's boyfriend was tortured, shot and paralyzed.  Debbie Morris survived. Eventually, Willie was executed.  Because of these traumatic events, Debbie Morris was in agony for years and could not forgive Morris for his crimes.  For eighteen years after the incident, her life was filled with anxiety.  She didn’t have an hour in which she was free of torment.  She was filled with anger and hatred for everything and everybody.  She hated her mother for letting her go out that night; she hated God for letting this happen to her; and needless to say, she hated Robert Willie. Sister Helen counseled her, and finally, after eighteen years, Debbie Morris found the strength to forgive Robert Willie.  Debbie is now married, has two children, and is doing very well. She wrote, “By forgiving Robert Willie, I in no way absolve him of the responsibility for what he did.  But the refusal to forgive him meant that I held on to my pain, my shame, and my self-pity. Justice didn’t do a thing to heal me.  Forgiveness did.”

Today we have heard the most difficult sayings of Jesus. It confronts our common beliefs about human justice. Martin Luther King, the leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the 60’s, recognized this when his house was burned by racial fanatics. A mob gathered afterwards ready to take revenge on the attackers, but he told them, “When you live by the rule ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,' you end up with a nation of blind and toothless people." Then he gathered them together in prayer for their oppressors. Martin Luther King made real the dignity that St. Paul wrote about when he called Jesus the “new man.” We are to put away our old understandings, the “old man,” and become people who follow the Gospel of Jesus and become the new man.

When we choose to live as Jesus did, we may still get hurt. He was killed for loving. Yet, he isn’t telling us, however, to allow ourselves to be the victims of another person’s violence. We are also told to love others as ourselves. We are told by the church that we have a moral right to defend ourselves. Yet when we turn the other cheek, for example, we are not encouraging people to abuse us more, but to make it physically awkward or impossible for them to continue their abuse. When we refuse to harm, while letting our opponents know that we have chosen not to harm them, we make a mockery of their violence. We disarm them.

Jesus challenges us to forgive, to love, to turn the other cheek. Such ideas are beyond our human tolerance. I don’t want to love my enemies. I want to destroy them. Yet, the law of love is more powerful than any revenge. In fact, revenge simply encourages more revenge. Look at the violence that is present in gangs. When we are hurt and seek out revenge, or when we harbor resentment in our hearts, we kill ourselves. Love is pushed out of our hearts when we hate and harbor bad thoughts about others. What good do such thoughts do for us? What is added to our lives by keeping resentments? Nothing. They are the ingredients of our own damnation. We must let go of hate, prejudice, bigotry, self-righteousness and put on love, forgiveness, and mercy.

As we are about to enter into Lent, spend time asking God to help you let go of those resentments and bad feelings about others. If you do, if you seek out reconciliation and forgiveness, then love can live again. Love your enemies. Remember the lesson from Sister Helen Prejean: Justice doesn’t do a thing to heal.  Forgiveness does.