{"id":6928,"date":"2020-12-09T18:24:42","date_gmt":"2020-12-09T08:24:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/?p=6928"},"modified":"2020-12-09T18:32:23","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T08:32:23","slug":"who-is-my-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/who-is-my-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is My Enemy?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Who Is My Enemy? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Monica<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Originally seen on Becoming Fully Alive blog site,\n26 Nov 2015.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I believe in a common humanity. Practically,\nthat means that we are not individuals, but persons who are\nin relationship with each other. Most importantly, it means that\nthere is a common thread that is stitched through the bone and sinew of us all;\na knot anywhere, affects us all. As Martin Luther King once said,\u201cWe are\ncaught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of\ndestiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond race, culture and religion, we are all made\nin the image and likeness of God. We all\npossess frail hearts, we all desire to love and be\nloved. We all long to find safety and belonging in the world. We\nall hurt and we fear, we stumble into awkward moments, into our own chaos and\nanger. We are the same beneath these beautiful layers of skin and confusion.\nWe are all the same kind of broken. And in our broken, common\nhumanity, redemption desires to tell the tale of us all, because there\nis no one beyond grace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet how many people have we deemed unworthy of\ngrace? How many souls have we too easily condemned?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEnemy\u201d is a strong word. Strong enough to make\nus distance ourselves from it and deny that it plays a part in our\nlives. But when Christ spoke of enemies, he spoke simply; an\nenemy is someone who stands in the way of our freedom, dignity, our capacity to\ngrow and love, someone who attacks us or our country. An enemy most\ncommonly exists within the person whom we are avoiding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the lawyer spoke to Jesus asking how he was to\nenter the kingdom of heaven, He answered him simply; \u201clove your\nneighbour as yourself.\u201d<\/em> But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked\nJesus, \u201cAnd who is my neighbour?\u201d<\/em> (Luke 10:29). Though the\nwords of the Bible are clear and simple, just like the lawyer, we seek\njustification. Love my enemy? Who is my enemy? Surely\nJesus didn\u2019t mean ISIS, surely He didn\u2019t mean the human\nresponsible for my deepest hurts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But what if the ones we name offenders\ncan be freed to love?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018They are people who, if loved, helped, and\ntrusted, can in some small way recognize their faults and their brokenness\nand can grow in humanity and in inner freedom.\u201d -Jean Vanier<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if humanity rose up to forgive? Like the sacred hearts of Katja Rosenberg,\u00a0Antoine Leiris and Arturo Martinez. What if we extended forgiveness regardless of our hurts and our rights, and followed the sacred Word that brings all healing? For us to forgive, we must yearn for unity and peace, yearn for the oneness to be united in\u00a0mind, in heart and in spirit.\u00a0If we love and desire for\u00a0all to be free to bear fruit, we will be a people heavy for\u00a0forgiveness. We will live full and whole\u00a0that we are no\u00a0longer driven by our desire to\u00a0be filled\u00a0and\u00a0prove\u00a0ourselves worthy but\u00a0we will yearn for the growth of all people in peace and in unity. To be a peacemaker, we must make peace with ourselves and we must make peace with those around us. We must believe that we are all a part of the suffering. We have all hurt and been hurt. When we point out darkness, we must remember to point back at our own souls. It is not easy to see\u00a0beyond\u00a0our own suffering, sometimes it is blinding. It is not easy to accept forgiveness or to forgive; it is a struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018 When we dare to care, then we discover that nothing human is foreign\nto us, but that all the hatred and love, cruelty and compassion, fear and joy\ncan be found in our own hearts. When we dare to care, we have to confess that\nwhen others kill, I could have killed too. When others torture, I could have\ndone the same. When others heal, I could have healed too.\u2019 -Henri\nNouwen<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truth is our enemies can often tell us a lot\nmore about us than our friends can. The way we respond to our enemies will\ntell us the true state of our hearts; if we are hearts walking in forgiveness\nor if we walk in resentment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Prayer for my Enemies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless and do not curse them. They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.<\/em> Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a fly.<\/em> Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background.<\/em> Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.<\/em> Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.<\/em> Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out. Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment.<\/em> Bless my enemies, O Lord. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even I bless them and do not curse them.<\/em> Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:<\/em> So that my fleeing will have no return; So that all my hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;<\/em> So that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; So that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger;<\/em> So that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; Ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.<\/em> Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One hates his enemies only when he fails to realise that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.<\/em> It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, O Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands.<\/em> For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2013Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Original blog post available at- https:\/\/becomingfullyalive.com\/who-is-my-enemy\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who Is My Enemy? By Monica Originally seen on Becoming Fully Alive blog site, 26 Nov 2015. I believe in a common humanity. Practically, that means that we are not individuals, but persons who are in relationship with each other. Most importantly, it means that there is a common thread that is stitched through the bone and sinew … Continue reading “Who Is My Enemy?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[474,6],"class_list":["post-6928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorised","tag-enemy","tag-love"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6928"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6931,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6928\/revisions\/6931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.stmark.com.au\/Blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}