WEBVTT 00:00:14.089 --> 00:00:17.010 Welcome to the Nonviolent Jesus Podcast. I'm 00:00:17.010 --> 00:00:20.030 John, Father John Deere, and today I want to 00:00:20.030 --> 00:00:22.469 reflect with you on the climax of the Sermon 00:00:22.469 --> 00:00:25.210 on the Mount, the command from Jesus to love 00:00:25.210 --> 00:00:28.969 your enemies. This is a project of BeatitudesCenter 00:00:28.969 --> 00:00:32.409 .org where you can find many other podcasts and 00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:35.329 regular Zoom programs on the nonviolence of Jesus 00:00:35.329 --> 00:00:38.509 and practicing nonviolence and working for a 00:00:38.509 --> 00:00:41.969 more nonviolent, more just, peaceful world. So 00:00:41.969 --> 00:00:44.740 let's begin with a little prayer. I invite you 00:00:44.740 --> 00:00:46.799 to just take a deep breath wherever you are. 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:51.740 Just relax and center yourself again. And together, 00:00:51.840 --> 00:00:54.359 let's enter into the presence of the God of peace 00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:58.640 and universal love who loves you infinitely and 00:00:58.640 --> 00:01:02.840 all people. And let's welcome the risen nonviolent 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:07.379 Jesus here with us and ask for the grace to follow 00:01:07.379 --> 00:01:11.310 him ever more faithfully. to love with his same 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:14.890 universal nonviolent love, and so to do God's 00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:22.230 will. God of peace, thank you for all the blessings 00:01:22.230 --> 00:01:24.650 of life, love, and peace that you give us. Be 00:01:24.650 --> 00:01:28.310 with us now as we reflect together on your call 00:01:28.310 --> 00:01:32.810 to follow the nonviolent Jesus and love everyone 00:01:32.810 --> 00:01:36.180 with a universal nonviolent love. friends, and 00:01:36.180 --> 00:01:39.439 enemies, and so work for a more nonviolent, more 00:01:39.439 --> 00:01:43.099 just world. Bless us, inspire us, disarm us, 00:01:43.260 --> 00:01:45.939 strengthen us, and send us out to do your will 00:01:45.939 --> 00:01:48.939 and to do our part to help end poverty, racism, 00:01:49.140 --> 00:01:52.700 greed, and war, and every form of injustice and 00:01:52.700 --> 00:01:54.840 nuclear weapons and environmental destruction, 00:01:55.040 --> 00:01:58.079 that we might fulfill these Sermon on the Mount 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:01.439 teachings and be your... Holy Beatitude people, 00:02:01.780 --> 00:02:05.879 your holy peacemakers, people of universal nonviolent 00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:09.699 love, we ask this mighty blessing in Jesus' name. 00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:13.099 So today, as I said, I'd like to reflect with 00:02:13.099 --> 00:02:16.280 you on the sixth antithesis of the Sermon on 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:18.840 the Mount. I did a podcast earlier on the fifth 00:02:18.840 --> 00:02:22.439 one. offer no violent resistance to one who does 00:02:22.439 --> 00:02:25.340 evil. This is the sixth one, the climax, Matthew 00:02:25.340 --> 00:02:30.159 5, verses 43 to 48. In those days, the writers 00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:32.939 put the key teaching in the center of the text. 00:02:33.400 --> 00:02:36.360 It wasn't at the very end like a climax like 00:02:36.360 --> 00:02:40.360 we write. So everything in the sermon leads up 00:02:40.360 --> 00:02:44.120 to this verse. I submit everything in the entire 00:02:44.120 --> 00:02:47.520 Bible leads up to this verse. And therefore this 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:51.509 verse is everything God is trying to say to the 00:02:51.509 --> 00:02:55.289 human race today. And it's the one thing we don't 00:02:55.289 --> 00:02:58.590 want to hear the most. So I invite you to hear 00:02:58.590 --> 00:03:01.389 this verse as I read it now, as if for the first 00:03:01.389 --> 00:03:05.370 time from God, and just let it sink in and take 00:03:05.370 --> 00:03:11.009 it to heart. Here we go. You have heard it said, 00:03:11.310 --> 00:03:14.689 you shall love your countrymen and hate your 00:03:14.689 --> 00:03:20.300 enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:23.879 pray for those who persecute you, that you may 00:03:23.879 --> 00:03:27.740 be sons and daughters of your heavenly God. For 00:03:27.740 --> 00:03:30.659 God makes his sun rise on the bad and the good 00:03:30.659 --> 00:03:34.180 and the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:38.659 So friends, here's my thesis. These are the most 00:03:38.659 --> 00:03:42.460 radical, political, revolutionary words ever 00:03:42.460 --> 00:03:45.879 uttered and ever written. up until that time. 00:03:45.939 --> 00:03:49.159 Love your enemies. They're certainly the most 00:03:49.159 --> 00:03:51.400 radical revolutionary political words in the 00:03:51.400 --> 00:03:54.960 entire Bible. And I think the most profound spiritual 00:03:54.960 --> 00:03:58.900 teaching in all of human history. And we know 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:01.460 historically that no one ever said or wrote these 00:04:01.460 --> 00:04:05.460 words before. And we know historically that for 00:04:05.460 --> 00:04:10.020 1700 years now, Christians have consciously, 00:04:10.219 --> 00:04:14.409 deliberately disobeyed them and set them aside. 00:04:15.469 --> 00:04:18.470 So my point is going to be, if we really want 00:04:18.470 --> 00:04:22.129 to follow the nonviolent Jesus, and these words 00:04:22.129 --> 00:04:25.509 are his bottom line, fundamental teaching, the 00:04:25.509 --> 00:04:28.389 heart of the whole Sermon on the Mount, then 00:04:28.389 --> 00:04:30.889 we really need to take them to heart and grapple 00:04:30.889 --> 00:04:33.430 with them and listen to them and figure out how 00:04:33.430 --> 00:04:36.339 to apply them. concretely to our own day -to 00:04:36.339 --> 00:04:39.379 -day lives and together globally in the church 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:42.079 and in the world in this terrible moment of permanent 00:04:42.079 --> 00:04:45.399 war and global destruction. And so on a personal 00:04:45.399 --> 00:04:49.040 note here, these words are why I got involved 00:04:49.040 --> 00:04:53.180 in peace and justice work. Love your enemies. 00:04:53.439 --> 00:04:57.819 So I lobbied in the Jesuits as a young kid. And 00:04:57.819 --> 00:05:01.120 in 1985, they let me go to El Salvador to live 00:05:01.120 --> 00:05:03.459 and work in a refugee camp near where the U .S. 00:05:03.459 --> 00:05:06.639 was bombing. And my sole job was when the death 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:09.680 squads came into the camp, I was to go out to 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:14.339 greet them in the hopes that they would leave 00:05:14.339 --> 00:05:19.819 because a gringo was here. U .S. was waging a 00:05:19.819 --> 00:05:22.899 terrible war that killed 30 ,000 people in Nicaragua. 00:05:23.639 --> 00:05:25.800 funding the wars that killed 200 ,000 people 00:05:25.800 --> 00:05:28.720 in Guatemala and 200 ,000 people in Colombia. 00:05:28.779 --> 00:05:31.379 And so I went to Nicaragua, right into the war 00:05:31.379 --> 00:05:35.519 zone, went to Guatemala, spent a month in Colombia, 00:05:35.699 --> 00:05:41.100 meeting every day with the survivors of massacres, 00:05:41.100 --> 00:05:44.560 you know, all funded by the U .S. government. 00:05:44.860 --> 00:05:48.600 Been several times to Palestine, tried to get 00:05:48.600 --> 00:05:52.970 into Gaza, but Israel wouldn't let me in. Been 00:05:52.970 --> 00:05:55.769 to the Philippines for a month where there was 00:05:55.769 --> 00:05:58.709 a war in the Far Islands. Nobody knew about it. 00:05:59.009 --> 00:06:03.589 Haiti, South Africa, and most of all Iraq, which 00:06:03.589 --> 00:06:06.829 was life -changing. And then Afghanistan, also 00:06:06.829 --> 00:06:10.930 life -changing. All of this as a way for me to 00:06:10.930 --> 00:06:13.889 actually go and be with people, human beings, 00:06:14.149 --> 00:06:18.670 who are under the threat of death by my country. 00:06:18.810 --> 00:06:21.170 I'm trying to actually meet them and love them. 00:06:21.740 --> 00:06:24.779 And I did. I met tens of thousands of people, 00:06:24.819 --> 00:06:29.029 tens of thousands. That led me over time to doing 00:06:29.029 --> 00:06:31.870 so much civil disobedience and organizing and 00:06:31.870 --> 00:06:34.750 protesting. Ultimately, my plowshares action 00:06:34.750 --> 00:06:38.569 in 1993 when I hammered on an F -15 nuclear capable 00:06:38.569 --> 00:06:41.910 fighter bomber to fulfill Isaiah 2 and face 20 00:06:41.910 --> 00:06:44.870 years in prison. Later, when I moved to New Mexico 00:06:44.870 --> 00:06:47.230 and led the annual nonviolence campaign at Los 00:06:47.230 --> 00:06:50.810 Alamos Labs, the birthplace of the bomb. Why? 00:06:50.949 --> 00:06:53.790 Because I was thinking maybe the best way I can 00:06:53.790 --> 00:06:57.509 love my country's enemies. is to try to stop 00:06:57.509 --> 00:07:00.089 my country from killing them. You know, like, 00:07:00.149 --> 00:07:04.149 instead of moving to Salvador or Iraq, the work 00:07:04.149 --> 00:07:08.949 needs to happen here. I think it's really critical 00:07:08.949 --> 00:07:12.430 to note right from the get -go that when Jesus 00:07:12.430 --> 00:07:17.810 commands us to love our enemies, he's talking 00:07:17.810 --> 00:07:21.959 about... People targeted with death by our nation 00:07:21.959 --> 00:07:26.079 state. This is explicit nation state language. 00:07:26.259 --> 00:07:29.139 He's not referring to the disagreeable neighbor 00:07:29.139 --> 00:07:32.399 or a difficult boss or a mean relative. You know, 00:07:32.439 --> 00:07:35.339 love your neighbor. That's that. Here he says, 00:07:35.420 --> 00:07:38.839 you know, love your countrymen. Yeah, patriarchal 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:41.319 language, patriarchal society. And hate and kill 00:07:41.319 --> 00:07:45.600 your enemies. I say to you, love the people that 00:07:45.600 --> 00:07:49.060 your nation is attacking and killing. So what 00:07:49.060 --> 00:07:51.180 does that mean for us as North Americans? Over 00:07:51.180 --> 00:07:54.019 the last five decades, the three million people 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:57.939 we killed in Vietnam and Indochina, all the hundreds 00:07:57.939 --> 00:08:00.019 of thousands of people we killed in El Salvador, 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.600 Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama, Grenada, the many 00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:07.879 more thousands, millions that have been killed 00:08:07.879 --> 00:08:11.439 in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Palestine. 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:15.199 Jesus would want his North American followers. 00:08:16.079 --> 00:08:18.920 not only to stop the wars against these people, 00:08:19.040 --> 00:08:22.579 but to actively love them, the people of those 00:08:22.579 --> 00:08:25.660 nations specifically. Why don't we do what he 00:08:25.660 --> 00:08:28.800 wants? I think it's ultimately because we're 00:08:28.800 --> 00:08:31.699 just afraid that we'd get in a lot of trouble, 00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:34.379 starting with our families and colleagues and 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:37.519 neighbors and lose our jobs, but the government 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:40.820 would get involved. And if you're siding nonviolently 00:08:40.820 --> 00:08:43.100 with the people our government is waging war 00:08:43.100 --> 00:08:45.559 upon, you're going to get into trouble. And we 00:08:45.559 --> 00:08:47.899 don't want to get into trouble. We actually even 00:08:47.899 --> 00:08:49.559 think that's what it means to be a Christian. 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:51.879 Don't rock the boat. It's actually the exact 00:08:51.879 --> 00:08:55.059 opposite of that. We are afraid of the consequences. 00:08:55.559 --> 00:08:58.500 I'm afraid. We all are. And the journey is to 00:08:58.500 --> 00:09:00.759 let go of your fears. It's why Jesus keeps telling 00:09:00.759 --> 00:09:04.019 the gang, do not be afraid and follow me. And 00:09:04.019 --> 00:09:06.659 he's loving all the wrong people all the time. 00:09:06.899 --> 00:09:09.889 He's going where he shouldn't go. We instead 00:09:09.889 --> 00:09:13.309 just go to church and disobey Jesus and go along 00:09:13.309 --> 00:09:16.870 with the nation state and sit by while our people 00:09:16.870 --> 00:09:20.370 are sent off to kill and be killed. And we, in 00:09:20.370 --> 00:09:22.789 our silence, support the culture of permanent 00:09:22.789 --> 00:09:27.629 war and hate. Let me, a little story. I always 00:09:27.629 --> 00:09:32.980 think about October. 2001, just after 9 -11, 00:09:33.259 --> 00:09:36.039 I was working in New York City, full -time at 00:09:36.039 --> 00:09:39.379 Ground Zero, and as the coordinator of chaplains 00:09:39.379 --> 00:09:42.340 at the Family Center. So it was a terrible time, 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:44.480 and I was working 12 hours a day. And as you 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:47.320 remember, the first week of October, George W. 00:09:47.379 --> 00:09:51.039 Bush declared war on Afghanistan, even though 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:53.860 Afghanistan had nothing to do with the 9 -11 00:09:53.860 --> 00:09:57.379 attacks. Clearly, everybody says it was funded 00:09:57.379 --> 00:10:00.879 by Saudi Arabia. I came home one night and turned 00:10:00.879 --> 00:10:03.539 on NPR's All Things Considered, and they were 00:10:03.539 --> 00:10:05.639 recovering the U .S. Catholic Bishops Conference 00:10:05.639 --> 00:10:09.580 that day. They voted all the bishops to fully 00:10:09.580 --> 00:10:13.500 support the war and bombing on Afghanistan. I 00:10:13.500 --> 00:10:15.139 remember they gave the count. It was something 00:10:15.139 --> 00:10:19.320 like 90 to 5. I was not surprised, but I was 00:10:19.320 --> 00:10:23.019 so sad and discouraged. And later that evening, 00:10:23.059 --> 00:10:27.250 I went over in the community house. To visit 00:10:27.250 --> 00:10:29.710 with my friend and teacher, Daniel Berrigan. 00:10:29.750 --> 00:10:33.090 I told him the news and his face fell and he 00:10:33.090 --> 00:10:35.669 was so sad. And then he said to me, this is the 00:10:35.669 --> 00:10:39.629 point I wanted to tell you. We should just burn 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:45.309 the Gospels. And process into mass holding up 00:10:45.309 --> 00:10:48.990 the army rule book. And we should incense it 00:10:48.990 --> 00:10:52.110 and bow to it and open it and read the great 00:10:52.110 --> 00:10:56.590 commandment. Kill your enemies. Well, I never 00:10:56.590 --> 00:10:59.269 forgot that, friends. That was Daniel Berrigan, 00:10:59.289 --> 00:11:03.509 my teacher. When Jesus commands us to love the 00:11:03.509 --> 00:11:05.730 enemies of our nation state, he uses that specific 00:11:05.730 --> 00:11:08.049 Greek word agape, which we don't have in the 00:11:08.049 --> 00:11:10.389 English language, which means unconditional, 00:11:10.789 --> 00:11:13.850 non -retaliatory, sacrificial, all -encompassing, 00:11:13.850 --> 00:11:17.129 all -inclusive, non -violent love, the universal 00:11:17.129 --> 00:11:23.210 love of Jesus, a love in which we give. our life 00:11:23.210 --> 00:11:26.850 for the other, in this case, our enemy, without 00:11:26.850 --> 00:11:30.649 inflicting any violence or harm. Jesus commands 00:11:30.649 --> 00:11:37.490 us to practice universal, nonviolent love. And 00:11:37.490 --> 00:11:40.850 if we can't say, yeah, we're doing that, Jesus, 00:11:40.950 --> 00:11:44.309 I love everybody, if at the same time our country 00:11:44.309 --> 00:11:46.789 is killing people around the world and we're 00:11:46.789 --> 00:11:50.590 not doing anything to stop it. You see, I think 00:11:50.590 --> 00:11:55.190 this commandment actually outlaws war. war preparations, 00:11:55.509 --> 00:11:58.429 killings, bombings, and the development of weapons 00:11:58.429 --> 00:12:01.009 of mass destruction. I think it actually leads 00:12:01.009 --> 00:12:03.789 to the end of the nation -state system and empire 00:12:03.789 --> 00:12:06.250 because it's calling for a whole new world of 00:12:06.250 --> 00:12:09.149 universal love in the concrete. He's trying to 00:12:09.149 --> 00:12:12.750 get us to welcome God's reign of universal love 00:12:12.750 --> 00:12:15.769 and nonviolence, which means we have to see beyond 00:12:15.769 --> 00:12:19.330 borders and embrace every human being nonviolently 00:12:19.330 --> 00:12:22.169 as a sister and brother to learn to welcome God's 00:12:22.169 --> 00:12:25.559 gift of peace for one another. Especially we 00:12:25.559 --> 00:12:29.019 have to do that as his followers when people 00:12:29.019 --> 00:12:36.360 are being killed by our own people. I think the 00:12:36.360 --> 00:12:38.659 Sermon on the Mount was a call to no longer obey 00:12:38.659 --> 00:12:41.840 the war -making state, but the peacemaking Christ, 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:45.279 to obey the God of peace and universal love. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:49.179 And notice, notice, notice, I read you the sentence. 00:12:49.950 --> 00:12:52.070 There's no exceptions. He doesn't say love your 00:12:52.070 --> 00:12:55.210 enemies, but if they're really bad and they're 00:12:55.210 --> 00:12:57.570 really violent and hateful, go ahead, you can 00:12:57.570 --> 00:13:00.110 kill them. Nope, there's no exceptions, no justification, 00:13:00.470 --> 00:13:04.269 no permission for killing. And I never heard 00:13:04.269 --> 00:13:07.210 this kind of talk in churches and sermons around 00:13:07.210 --> 00:13:10.450 the country because this isn't fun and inspiring, 00:13:10.809 --> 00:13:15.730 uplifting. But this is what the church has done, 00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:19.750 all of them. gotten around this, found a loophole. 00:13:20.629 --> 00:13:23.789 Killing enemies is completely forbidden because 00:13:23.789 --> 00:13:26.169 we are commanded to love them with this agape, 00:13:26.309 --> 00:13:29.110 unconditional, non -violent love, which means 00:13:29.110 --> 00:13:31.269 we can't come up with any excuse to go, well, 00:13:31.269 --> 00:13:33.610 actually with Hitler, you got to kill him. Oh, 00:13:33.690 --> 00:13:36.129 you got to kill Saddam. No, you got to kill Osama. 00:13:37.370 --> 00:13:39.870 There is no such thing as a just war theory. 00:13:40.830 --> 00:13:43.149 And there's never mentioned in the Sermon on 00:13:43.149 --> 00:13:45.990 the Mount or the four gospels or the New Testament. 00:13:46.649 --> 00:13:49.210 The beginning of it came three centuries later 00:13:49.210 --> 00:13:53.269 when the Constantine emperor theoretically converted 00:13:53.269 --> 00:13:58.789 and made Christianity a legal movement and religion 00:13:58.789 --> 00:14:01.429 and said, you don't need to be nonviolent anymore. 00:14:02.539 --> 00:14:05.519 Use Cicero, the pagan philosopher. He has some 00:14:05.519 --> 00:14:08.240 good conditions where sometimes it's okay to 00:14:08.240 --> 00:14:10.899 kill and you should all join the Roman Empire's 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:13.539 military. And we all went, oh, great. And here 00:14:13.539 --> 00:14:16.360 we are 1 ,700 years later. Now, you're not going 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:18.220 to like this, but when I was a kid, I heard a 00:14:18.220 --> 00:14:20.639 Jesuit friend saying, well, if you're going to 00:14:20.639 --> 00:14:24.039 have just war theory, let's have justified racism, 00:14:24.440 --> 00:14:28.759 justified rape. And he went through the conditions, 00:14:28.919 --> 00:14:32.920 justified adultery. It's for a good cause. When 00:14:32.920 --> 00:14:35.980 he read it out loud, you just go, that's so ridiculous. 00:14:37.240 --> 00:14:39.960 All of this is just created so that the empire 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.299 could take over the Christian community. But 00:14:42.299 --> 00:14:44.360 it's antithetical to everything that the nonviolent 00:14:44.360 --> 00:14:48.379 Jesus taught and lived. And the just war theory 00:14:48.379 --> 00:14:52.899 today, which is various versions, there actually 00:14:52.899 --> 00:14:55.740 is no one. So, for example, one of the conditions 00:14:55.740 --> 00:15:01.980 is no civilians can be killed. But before World 00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:06.759 War I, every war would have casualties of 90 00:15:06.759 --> 00:15:10.879 % of those killed would be soldiers. Today, in 00:15:10.879 --> 00:15:14.179 all the wars in the world, at least 90 % of all 00:15:14.179 --> 00:15:16.759 those killed are civilians. Now that we know. 00:15:17.019 --> 00:15:20.139 So this just war theory has nothing to, can't 00:15:20.139 --> 00:15:23.059 be met. as well as not having nothing to do with 00:15:23.059 --> 00:15:26.139 Jesus. I think it's heresy and it's blasphemy. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:29.419 That's why I was so pleased when at the Vatican 00:15:29.419 --> 00:15:32.600 conference, Pope Francis agreed and said, there 00:15:32.600 --> 00:15:36.059 is no just war. Those of us who care about Jesus 00:15:36.059 --> 00:15:38.480 need to start talking about this and talking 00:15:38.480 --> 00:15:41.120 about it with our ministers and churches and 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:45.000 priests. And now notice the next exact words, 00:15:45.039 --> 00:15:47.620 if you're still hanging in here with me. Love 00:15:47.620 --> 00:15:52.259 your enemies and pray for your persecutors. Huh? 00:15:52.259 --> 00:15:55.799 If you start loving the enemies of your country, 00:15:55.960 --> 00:16:01.240 the people your country is trying to kill, you're 00:16:01.240 --> 00:16:03.340 going to get in trouble. It's not going to go 00:16:03.340 --> 00:16:05.159 over well. They're not going to give you the 00:16:05.159 --> 00:16:08.960 Nobel Peace Prize. Starting with your relatives, 00:16:09.299 --> 00:16:13.200 neighbors, coworkers, and church people. Listen, 00:16:13.259 --> 00:16:14.960 just take my word for this. This isn't going 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:18.080 to go over well. And eventually the ruling authorities, 00:16:18.179 --> 00:16:21.100 if you keep at it. That's the sign, if you're 00:16:21.100 --> 00:16:23.059 in trouble, that you're truly beginning to follow 00:16:23.059 --> 00:16:25.620 Jesus, that you're loving with that universal 00:16:25.620 --> 00:16:28.299 love. When you're in trouble for making peace, 00:16:28.460 --> 00:16:31.200 and really, we're talking about the way of the 00:16:31.200 --> 00:16:35.419 cross. That's why the commandment right after 00:16:35.419 --> 00:16:37.740 love your enemies is pray for your persecutors, 00:16:37.779 --> 00:16:41.559 and nobody talks about that. And in fact, since 00:16:41.559 --> 00:16:44.139 we don't read the actual words, we misquote it 00:16:44.139 --> 00:16:46.759 all the time. I hear this wrong all the time. 00:16:47.629 --> 00:16:49.870 Pray for your enemies. No, that's not what he 00:16:49.870 --> 00:16:53.029 says. Pray for ourselves. No, that's not what 00:16:53.029 --> 00:16:57.429 he says. This is the first time prayer, we're 00:16:57.429 --> 00:17:00.929 told how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:17:01.549 --> 00:17:04.029 And the people you pray for are the people who 00:17:04.029 --> 00:17:07.269 are persecuting you for going against the empire. 00:17:08.650 --> 00:17:12.450 It's a command to pray for, well, to continue 00:17:12.450 --> 00:17:15.430 that universal love. We pray for them that they 00:17:15.430 --> 00:17:18.269 might be converted. It's universal nonviolent 00:17:18.269 --> 00:17:22.269 love. I remember, though, when I was a young 00:17:22.269 --> 00:17:24.809 Jesuit and I was really grappling with this and 00:17:24.809 --> 00:17:26.230 I was going, okay, I'm really going to try to 00:17:26.230 --> 00:17:29.289 do this. I don't know how. For some reason, I 00:17:29.289 --> 00:17:31.710 was obsessed with the question, okay, Jesus, 00:17:31.910 --> 00:17:34.829 yeah, I don't get it. I'll do it. But can't you 00:17:34.829 --> 00:17:37.950 just tell me why? This is just the way I am. 00:17:39.109 --> 00:17:40.710 My friends sitting here, I'm thinking they're 00:17:40.710 --> 00:17:44.369 nuts. But I was obsessed. Why, Jesus? So I would 00:17:44.369 --> 00:17:47.230 go around to other priests. Why does Jesus want 00:17:47.230 --> 00:17:50.730 us to love our enemies? And they'd go, I don't 00:17:50.730 --> 00:17:56.049 know. I couldn't find anybody. Finally, I come 00:17:56.049 --> 00:17:59.109 to Martin Luther King's collection of sermons. 00:17:59.349 --> 00:18:03.259 It's called Strength to Love. Oh my God, I can't 00:18:03.259 --> 00:18:05.160 recommend that book highly enough. Everybody 00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:08.539 go and get it and read the sermon he gave on 00:18:08.539 --> 00:18:11.619 love your enemies. It just leaves me in the dust 00:18:11.619 --> 00:18:13.539 here with what I'm talking about. And you'll 00:18:13.539 --> 00:18:15.220 have to forgive me because I've been drinking 00:18:15.220 --> 00:18:17.680 coffee, but here's my interpretation of Martin 00:18:17.680 --> 00:18:20.980 Luther King going. You can imagine him in Ebenezer 00:18:20.980 --> 00:18:23.720 Baptist Church. Jesus doesn't say love your enemies 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:27.799 because it's the right thing to do, even though 00:18:27.799 --> 00:18:31.059 it is. Jesus doesn't say love your enemies because 00:18:31.059 --> 00:18:33.819 it's the moral stand to take the philosophical 00:18:33.819 --> 00:18:38.839 good to be done, even though it is. And then 00:18:38.839 --> 00:18:42.279 this. Jesus doesn't say love your enemies because 00:18:42.279 --> 00:18:45.519 it's the only practical political solution left 00:18:45.519 --> 00:18:50.700 for the planet, even though it is. Dr. King said, 00:18:50.839 --> 00:18:54.319 it's right there in the rest of the sentence. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:18:59.319 It's like I didn't even read it. I say to you, 00:18:59.339 --> 00:19:02.220 love your enemies and pray for those who persecute 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:05.660 you. Then you really will be sons and daughters 00:19:05.660 --> 00:19:08.579 of your heavenly God. For God makes his sun rise 00:19:08.579 --> 00:19:10.579 on the bad and the good and his rain to fall 00:19:10.579 --> 00:19:14.599 on the just and the unjust. Dr. King said the 00:19:14.599 --> 00:19:17.470 obvious, right? We love our enemies because God 00:19:17.470 --> 00:19:20.230 loves every human being on the planet. We are 00:19:20.230 --> 00:19:22.710 sons and daughters of this God of universal love. 00:19:22.809 --> 00:19:25.750 So we just go out into a world of war and do 00:19:25.750 --> 00:19:28.829 what God does. It's so obvious to me now, 45 00:19:28.829 --> 00:19:32.890 years later. But I needed Dr. King to teach me 00:19:32.890 --> 00:19:37.750 that. It's really a revolution in our understanding 00:19:37.750 --> 00:19:42.049 of God. Because here, if you're still with me. 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:45.579 In this most political sense in the entire Bible, 00:19:45.920 --> 00:19:49.920 Jesus gives us the clearest description of the 00:19:49.920 --> 00:19:53.920 nature of the mystery of God. In fact, I don't 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:56.380 think Jesus talks that much about God. If you 00:19:56.380 --> 00:19:58.140 read the four gospels, he's always getting in 00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:00.119 trouble. People want to kill him. He's hanging 00:20:00.119 --> 00:20:01.799 out with the wrong people and healing people. 00:20:01.940 --> 00:20:07.019 And here he says, God loves every human being 00:20:07.019 --> 00:20:10.299 no matter what. If you want to worship, serve, 00:20:10.460 --> 00:20:14.859 and be related to this God, you have to do the 00:20:14.859 --> 00:20:17.660 same. Didn't we just agree to this in the Beatitudes? 00:20:18.140 --> 00:20:20.160 Blessed are the peacemakers. They are the sons 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:23.359 and daughters of God. We go into the culture 00:20:23.359 --> 00:20:25.500 of war and work to end war and make peace because 00:20:25.500 --> 00:20:28.240 God is a God of peace. Now he's saying, Well, 00:20:28.279 --> 00:20:31.319 the same thing. God, peacemaking is universal 00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:34.519 nonviolent love. We are sons and daughters of 00:20:34.519 --> 00:20:37.880 God, so we do the same. I think this one sentence 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:41.200 is the greatest breakthrough in human history 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:44.579 because it not only points a way out of empire 00:20:44.579 --> 00:20:48.920 and warfare, but toward the living God of universal 00:20:48.920 --> 00:20:52.119 love and maybe even toward the fullest understanding 00:20:52.119 --> 00:20:55.210 of what it means to be a human being. people 00:20:55.210 --> 00:20:58.589 of universal love. This is the spiritual life. 00:20:58.650 --> 00:21:02.150 This is the heart of the gospel. And this political 00:21:02.150 --> 00:21:06.950 sentence challenges us to question all our lifelong 00:21:06.950 --> 00:21:09.609 images of God, everything that we were raised 00:21:09.609 --> 00:21:12.890 on, to think that God is a mean, white, old man 00:21:12.890 --> 00:21:16.430 who can't wait to throw us in hell, or at least 00:21:16.430 --> 00:21:19.890 them, the bad guys. So the question I always 00:21:19.890 --> 00:21:22.349 ask when I read this is, is your God violent 00:21:22.349 --> 00:21:26.900 or nonviolent? Even more shocking way to put 00:21:26.900 --> 00:21:30.539 it is, do we want a God of universal nonviolent 00:21:30.539 --> 00:21:33.720 love? You know, we don't understand what that 00:21:33.720 --> 00:21:36.500 would mean. We actually kind of prefer a God 00:21:36.500 --> 00:21:39.119 of, I mean, hateful, violent God, because we 00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:44.240 can get that. Do we want to be sons and daughters 00:21:44.240 --> 00:21:48.299 of universal love? Are we willing to practice 00:21:48.299 --> 00:21:52.839 the same universal nonviolent love as God? And 00:21:52.839 --> 00:21:55.160 to accept the social, economic, racial, political, 00:21:55.380 --> 00:21:57.779 environmental consequences of such a universal 00:21:57.779 --> 00:22:01.900 stand, I think nothing is working in life. And 00:22:01.900 --> 00:22:04.319 this is actually the path of happiness because 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:07.940 you're totally free if you love everybody. You 00:22:07.940 --> 00:22:10.559 know, I could flip these questions around too 00:22:10.559 --> 00:22:15.200 and say, if we have spent our lives going along 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:19.240 with the United States or whatever country you're 00:22:19.240 --> 00:22:23.359 in, and supporting its wars and weapons and killing 00:22:23.359 --> 00:22:27.440 their enemies and completely disobeying and violating 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:31.660 Jesus' commandment to universal love. What does 00:22:31.660 --> 00:22:35.619 that say about our image of God or ourselves, 00:22:35.839 --> 00:22:40.539 our own image of who we are? Who are we then? 00:22:40.799 --> 00:22:43.460 I remember Philip Berrigan and I in jail talking 00:22:43.460 --> 00:22:47.940 about this. if we're not then the sons and daughters 00:22:47.940 --> 00:22:52.160 of the God of universal nonviolent life, who 00:22:52.160 --> 00:22:55.680 are we the sons and daughters of? And Phil said, 00:22:55.779 --> 00:23:00.359 I said, the culture of violence and war and death. 00:23:00.599 --> 00:23:03.799 And Phil said, we're sons and daughters of the 00:23:03.799 --> 00:23:07.539 bomb. I never forgot that. We worship a false 00:23:07.539 --> 00:23:11.680 God of war. So I think we all need to get with 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:15.450 our friends and start talking about this. And 00:23:15.450 --> 00:23:18.329 how are we loving our nation's enemies? Or how 00:23:18.329 --> 00:23:20.910 could we start doing that more and more? And 00:23:20.910 --> 00:23:23.390 why don't we want to? And what are we afraid 00:23:23.390 --> 00:23:27.509 of? And has that helped during our life, keeping 00:23:27.509 --> 00:23:30.609 our head buried in the sand? Or maybe you were 00:23:30.609 --> 00:23:33.450 part of the Vietnam protests or the anti -Iraq 00:23:33.450 --> 00:23:36.769 war or anti -Afghanistan war protests or the 00:23:36.769 --> 00:23:39.910 wars to trying to stop the Israeli war in Gaza. 00:23:40.009 --> 00:23:43.200 And you've discovered. an inner joy that comes. 00:23:43.299 --> 00:23:45.099 That's the consolation. That's the blessing. 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:48.779 What can we do today to stop our country from 00:23:48.779 --> 00:23:51.039 killing our sisters and brothers in Palestine, 00:23:51.460 --> 00:23:55.539 Haiti, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, 00:23:55.839 --> 00:23:58.960 Sudan, and elsewhere? And I mean the actual physical 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:02.500 killing, but also the selling of weapons in every 00:24:02.500 --> 00:24:05.339 war. The U .S. is selling weapons to both sides 00:24:05.339 --> 00:24:08.220 in every war and the nuclear threat, which is 00:24:08.220 --> 00:24:11.369 now toward the whole human race. Okay. As we 00:24:11.369 --> 00:24:14.450 come to the end of the text, Jesus goes a little 00:24:14.450 --> 00:24:17.970 farther and asks a series of penetrating questions 00:24:17.970 --> 00:24:23.829 to try to persuade us into the wisdom of agape, 00:24:24.109 --> 00:24:26.849 universal nonviolent love. I wrote a whole book 00:24:26.849 --> 00:24:30.670 called The Questions of Jesus, you know, years 00:24:30.670 --> 00:24:36.549 ago with Doubleday. And I found Jesus asked 350 00:24:36.549 --> 00:24:41.119 questions in the four Gospels. He only answers 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:44.980 four of them. So not only being the great teacher, 00:24:45.140 --> 00:24:47.319 he's the great interrogator. He's the one with 00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:49.819 not just the answers, but the one with the questions. 00:24:50.079 --> 00:24:52.619 And I began the book talking about Real K, who 00:24:52.619 --> 00:24:55.579 said, when you get to a big question, whatever 00:24:55.579 --> 00:24:59.220 you do, don't answer it. Just kind of live your 00:24:59.220 --> 00:25:01.539 way, and over time, you'll enter the answer. 00:25:01.880 --> 00:25:04.579 So listen to these questions, and this leads 00:25:04.579 --> 00:25:07.539 up to my favorite question of everything Jesus 00:25:07.539 --> 00:25:10.950 asked in the four Gospels. If you love those 00:25:10.950 --> 00:25:13.710 who love you, what recompense will you have? 00:25:13.930 --> 00:25:18.109 Do not the tax collectors do the same? Holy Toledo. 00:25:19.849 --> 00:25:23.230 If you greet your brothers only, and here's my 00:25:23.230 --> 00:25:27.930 favorite question, what's so unusual about that? 00:25:29.509 --> 00:25:32.809 If you just, you know, you love the people around 00:25:32.809 --> 00:25:38.960 you, who cares? That's obvious. Do not the pagans 00:25:38.960 --> 00:25:42.180 do the same? Now, that's like insulting to the 00:25:42.180 --> 00:25:45.140 people he's talking to there by the Sea of Galilee. 00:25:45.680 --> 00:25:47.759 You say, well, then you're just like tax collectors 00:25:47.759 --> 00:25:50.180 and pagans. Well, you know, the tax collectors. 00:25:51.920 --> 00:25:54.279 practicing, to put it mildly, a very limited 00:25:54.279 --> 00:25:57.059 love. They stole all the resources of the people 00:25:57.059 --> 00:25:59.299 and kept them in debt. The pagans are the Romans 00:25:59.299 --> 00:26:01.619 and the ruling authorities who are oppressing 00:26:01.619 --> 00:26:03.420 and killing the people and coming through and, 00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:06.039 you know, wiping out village after village. And 00:26:06.039 --> 00:26:07.660 Jesus is going, well, actually, you're not that 00:26:07.660 --> 00:26:10.460 far different from them because they love each 00:26:10.460 --> 00:26:14.420 other too. But I want something unusual. What's 00:26:14.420 --> 00:26:17.619 so unusual about that? Isn't that an interesting 00:26:17.619 --> 00:26:23.410 word? If we do not rise to the level of universal 00:26:23.410 --> 00:26:28.109 nonviolent love and become who we were created 00:26:28.109 --> 00:26:31.630 to be, the sons and daughters of a God of universal 00:26:31.630 --> 00:26:34.170 nonviolent love, then how different are we from 00:26:34.170 --> 00:26:37.390 anybody else, beginning with tax collectors and 00:26:37.390 --> 00:26:40.569 pagans, and we can go forth with other words. 00:26:40.970 --> 00:26:45.849 Jesus wants an unusual. outrageous, extravagant, 00:26:45.849 --> 00:26:48.809 universal love, the love that goes beyond borders, 00:26:48.869 --> 00:26:51.750 politics, and expectations, that reaches out 00:26:51.750 --> 00:26:54.869 across the planet and welcomes and embraces every 00:26:54.869 --> 00:26:57.710 single human being and loves them and wants them 00:26:57.710 --> 00:27:00.890 to have the fullness of life, dignity, freedom, 00:27:01.190 --> 00:27:05.109 and joy, as well as good food, clean water, housing, 00:27:05.309 --> 00:27:07.930 healthcare, education, and jobs, that everyone 00:27:07.930 --> 00:27:11.609 could be happy in God and one another. As his 00:27:11.609 --> 00:27:15.630 followers... You and I are done with this puny, 00:27:15.630 --> 00:27:19.170 tiny, limited love that just serves our country 00:27:19.170 --> 00:27:22.869 and the culture of war and the empire and ends 00:27:22.869 --> 00:27:25.470 up supporting the death of our sisters and brothers 00:27:25.470 --> 00:27:28.289 around the world. We want to go all the way with 00:27:28.289 --> 00:27:31.549 Jesus and somehow practice the same outrageous, 00:27:31.769 --> 00:27:34.369 unusual, universal, political, nonviolent love 00:27:34.369 --> 00:27:38.230 that he showed. His bold, boundless, fearless, 00:27:38.529 --> 00:27:43.140 shocking, godly love that... kind of sides with 00:27:43.140 --> 00:27:45.500 the people being targeted, the poor and the oppressed, 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:49.420 and then goes in further, the enemy of the empire. 00:27:50.720 --> 00:27:54.740 And therefore, the love that threatens the culture 00:27:54.740 --> 00:27:58.460 of war, that threatens the entire nation state. 00:27:59.130 --> 00:28:02.029 and the big business of killing. If we're like 00:28:02.029 --> 00:28:05.009 Dr. King and practicing a universal love and 00:28:05.009 --> 00:28:07.890 calling all the poor to Washington, D .C., the 00:28:07.890 --> 00:28:09.710 Poor People's Campaign, and then says we're going 00:28:09.710 --> 00:28:12.450 to take all those 50 ,000 people across the Potomac 00:28:12.450 --> 00:28:16.529 River and shut down the Pentagon to end the Vietnam 00:28:16.529 --> 00:28:18.930 War, well, then you're a real threat to the United 00:28:18.930 --> 00:28:22.210 States government, and so they killed them. The 00:28:22.210 --> 00:28:25.690 last line has always been difficult throughout 00:28:25.690 --> 00:28:28.529 history, and I think the translation has caused... 00:28:28.750 --> 00:28:31.950 problems. So this is the very end there of chapter 00:28:31.950 --> 00:28:35.710 5 in Matthew. So be perfect as God is perfect. 00:28:36.210 --> 00:28:38.569 You know, I think the word perfect, doesn't it 00:28:38.569 --> 00:28:43.210 mean to have no imperfections, no flaws, no brokenness, 00:28:43.269 --> 00:28:46.170 no weakness? And yet, isn't that the epitome 00:28:46.170 --> 00:28:48.549 of every human being is flawed, broken, weak, 00:28:48.589 --> 00:28:51.509 and literally imperfect? I don't think that's 00:28:51.509 --> 00:28:55.089 what the original Greek word means, teleos. It's 00:28:55.089 --> 00:28:57.720 something different. You know, you can look it 00:28:57.720 --> 00:29:00.180 up and it means going to the end or complete. 00:29:01.079 --> 00:29:03.740 I have been grappling with this for years. I 00:29:03.740 --> 00:29:08.500 think Jesus saying, be like God, go all the way 00:29:08.500 --> 00:29:13.160 to the end, be complete and fulfilling total 00:29:13.160 --> 00:29:17.839 universal love. Go all out to your last day. 00:29:18.599 --> 00:29:21.539 So in other words, he ends by kind of saying, 00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:25.160 so keep going forward and making progress in 00:29:25.160 --> 00:29:28.700 our global outreach of universal love till we 00:29:28.700 --> 00:29:32.240 love everyone universally and our love is complete 00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:37.619 like the love of God. We are weak, flawed, broken 00:29:37.619 --> 00:29:41.700 people loved infinitely by a God of universal 00:29:41.700 --> 00:29:47.119 love called to the fullness of nonviolent universal 00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:50.759 love. So we go out and we try to live it. as 00:29:50.759 --> 00:29:52.980 completely as possible. That's how I read the 00:29:52.980 --> 00:29:55.779 text, so that we might be who we were created 00:29:55.779 --> 00:29:59.039 to be, who, in fact, we already are and don't 00:29:59.039 --> 00:30:01.400 know it, the sons and daughters of the God of 00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:04.099 universal love. Luke, you know, a couple years 00:30:04.099 --> 00:30:07.759 later, changes that last line, and because, and 00:30:07.759 --> 00:30:11.500 I think it's helpful, he says, so be merciful. 00:30:12.279 --> 00:30:15.339 As God is merciful. Be compassionate, other translations 00:30:15.339 --> 00:30:17.980 say, as God is compassionate. That's the same 00:30:17.980 --> 00:30:21.140 thing, to practice universal compassion, universal 00:30:21.140 --> 00:30:25.160 mercy, and to keep making progress on that journey. 00:30:25.240 --> 00:30:27.660 That's the goal. That's the teaching of the Sermon 00:30:27.660 --> 00:30:30.099 on the Mount in a nutshell. Do this and you will 00:30:30.099 --> 00:30:32.440 be sons and daughters of the God of universal 00:30:32.440 --> 00:30:35.319 love. So friends, let's all pray for one another 00:30:35.319 --> 00:30:38.500 and the churches that we might all... You know, 00:30:38.519 --> 00:30:41.279 start all over again and strive to practice this 00:30:41.279 --> 00:30:44.859 great universal non -violent love of God and 00:30:44.859 --> 00:30:48.740 Jesus for friends and enemies. Why not go all 00:30:48.740 --> 00:30:52.880 out into the unusual love? And in doing so, seek 00:30:52.880 --> 00:30:55.380 God's reign of universal love and compassion 00:30:55.380 --> 00:30:59.960 and peace here on earth. I love that phrase from 00:30:59.960 --> 00:31:03.730 St. Paul. In other words, that we might know 00:31:03.730 --> 00:31:06.809 the height and breadth and length and depth of 00:31:06.809 --> 00:31:10.329 the fullness of God's universal love. You know, 00:31:10.369 --> 00:31:13.150 as I finished writing this this morning, I was 00:31:13.150 --> 00:31:15.329 thinking, we have so much more power than we 00:31:15.329 --> 00:31:18.789 realize because we have the love of God available 00:31:18.789 --> 00:31:22.309 to us. Let me end with a quote from John and 00:31:22.309 --> 00:31:27.779 Paul of the Beatles, my favorite band. Limitless, 00:31:27.779 --> 00:31:31.299 undying love that shines around me like a million 00:31:31.299 --> 00:31:35.059 suns. It calls me on and on across the universe. 00:31:35.519 --> 00:31:38.819 May we go forth to love everyone everywhere nonviolently 00:31:38.819 --> 00:31:42.920 and universally in the limitless, undying, shining 00:31:42.920 --> 00:31:46.460 love of Jesus. Thanks, friends, for listening 00:31:46.460 --> 00:31:48.759 to this Nonviolent Jesus podcast. You can hear 00:31:48.759 --> 00:31:51.900 more podcasts and find other upcoming Zoom programs 00:31:51.900 --> 00:31:55.859 at beatitudescenter .org. Please consider offering 00:31:55.859 --> 00:31:59.099 a donation to support this free work. And if 00:31:59.099 --> 00:32:01.680 you can, offer some positive feedback or a review 00:32:01.680 --> 00:32:04.859 on Apple or Spotify or whatever platform you 00:32:04.859 --> 00:32:07.640 use, or at the National Catholic Reporter in 00:32:07.640 --> 00:32:10.259 the paper or online. And most of all, please 00:32:10.259 --> 00:32:12.579 tell your friends and colleagues and church workers 00:32:12.579 --> 00:32:16.420 about the Nonviolent Jesus podcast. May the God 00:32:16.420 --> 00:32:19.119 of peace bless you all. Keep on following the 00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:21.599 Nonviolent Jesus. See you next time.