As the year draws to a close, a powerful reflection challenges Christians in the Philippines and beyond to embrace one of the most difficult teachings of Jesus Christ: the command to love one's enemies. This call, central to the Christian faith, pushes believers beyond natural human instincts towards a divine standard of conduct.
The Radical Call Beyond Human Instinct
On New Year's Eve, the message focuses on the words from Luke 6:27, 32, where Jesus instructs his followers to "love your enemies" and "do good to those who hate you." This teaching is described as counter-intuitive and challenging, asking individuals to soar beyond basic humanity into the realm of the divine. The reflection posits that while being truly human is a universal call, Christians receive a higher, nobler challenge that grates against every fiber of human nature.
Applying the Challenge in the Real World
The article confronts the practical difficulty of this command with pointed, contemporary examples. It asks how Filipinos can love those responsible for ghost projects and sub-standard flood control that caused death, displacement, hunger, and ill-health. It questions how to love those whose actions led to denuded mountains, resulting in destructive floods. The reflection also directly names former President Rodrigo Duterte in the context of alleged extrajudicial killings, framing him as a figure whom some find difficult to love.
The piece proposes a dual-path response for Christians:
- In Catholic Christian terms: Praying for individuals to admit, confess, and feel remorse for their sins.
- In human political terms: Hauling them before the courts of law within the Philippines, asserting national sovereignty against surrender to foreign courts.
The crucial point made is that both justice and accountability are acts of love, not hate. Letting offenders continue without consequence is framed as a failure to love them and a tolerance of inhuman, un-Christian behavior. True Christian love, therefore, demands penance and atonement.
The Hard Path of a True Follower
The reflection concludes by emphasizing that Christianity is a radical religion. The ultimate measure of being a true Christian is answering the call to be "a touch divine" by loving enemies and doing good to those who cause harm. This is acknowledged as an exceptionally difficult task, defining what it means to be a genuine follower of Christ. The piece ends with a wish for a divinely Blessed and Prosperous New Year for all, tying the challenging message to the hope of the coming year.
