"Love your Enemies"

Ironically, the Gospel for today, 9/11, contains the command, "love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  To the person  who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.  Give to everyone who asks of you, and from the one who takes what is yours do not demand it back.  Do to others as you would have them do to you." (Lk 6: 27-31 )  How hard to carry out these words in view of the memory of this day 13 years ago, the recent atrocities in Iraq, and the plan for air strikes in Syria! Echoing Jesus, Pope Francis has said over and over again: "violence is not the way to end violence."  These "solutions" go against our core instincts and against what we perceive as the reality that "you cannot deal rationally with these people.  They are evil, they are monsters. We've got to treat them the way they treat us. It's the only language they understand." However, we've seen the "War on Terrorism" continue, if not escalate, over the past decade plus, and the prediction is that it will never end.  Destroy ISIL (ISIS) and another group will pop up. War does not seem to be the answer, as hard as it is even to say this.    Could it be that the approach Jesus suggests could actually be the one that succeeds?  Who will be the leader to broker such a deal? Where do we begin?  At this moment, we seem powerless to change the mood and mentality begging for strong retaliation, but we can begin with our relations with one another.
Jesus always resorts to love, for he is Love.  In our dealings with one another today, especially, let us make that extra effort to love all, be more forgiving and accepting and try, at least in our own circles, to put the words of Jesus into practice. see  if they work, and pray that they will have a ripple effect that will reach as far as the powers above us.
Bro. Rene