Objection

Do you ever want to stand up and object when you are listening to someone publically speak? That is what happened to me in church this week.

The Gospel reading was from Matthew and it has not been in the cannon for 15 years: "Love thy enemies." I am good with that. Jesus knows what He is talking about. He was totally right when He said there is nothing really special about loving your friends. Any normal person with a heart can do that. The difficult and Christ-like thing is to love an enemy. I totally agree. What do you think?

So I agree with the Gospel (of course)... but then there was the sermon telling us to feel lovingly for those who hurt us, and I object. My momma told me when I was very little that I do not have to like my brother to love him. (I remember, because it made me mad.)

After church, I came home to look up love in the dictionary. I wanted to reference for the benefit of my readers, the definition of love that Jesus (and my mother) was using when He uttered his infamous command. It turns out the definition is so old it is not even in the dictionary. It is almost like the word, "pursuit," that Thomas Jefferson used when he said we are all entitled to, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiess." (A bastardized version of John Locke's "life, liberty and property.")

Good old Tom was not encouraging us to chase happiness. I doubt the thought would even have entered his mind! Chasing things makes them run away. Besides that, when a person chases something, he could injure others around him. This injury would be an infringement on their rights, and a paradoxical conflict of rights would be born.

Lets give some examples: What of the mother who chases happiness by snorting crack? Her habit hurts her children. What of the children's rights? What of the person who chases happiness by stealing? The victims' rights are definitely infringed upon. What of teens chasing happiness by drag racing who kill an innocent motorist when they smash into on-coming traffic? The motorist's right to life is extinguished. Countless examples exist and somebody as obviously intelligent as Tom Jefferson would have known that.

The notion of having a right to chase happiness is ridiculous and was not practiced in the days of Thomas Jefferson. Think of the era he lived in. People did what they were supposed to do, whether or not it was personally pleasing, because it was their responsibility to do it. The concept of chasing after happiness would have been foreign to the man. More familiar would be the phrase, "be happy with what you've got." Tom must have meant something different than "chase" by the word "pursuit." What did he mean?

Use an older definition of, "pursuit." In Thomas Jefferson's day, the pursuit of something was a type of slang meaning the practice of it (Example, literary pursuits). In that light, his statement, "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," makes much more sense. So does Jesus' command to "love thy enemy" when using the correct definition of love. In fact, it is so simple that it is hard not to see.

When I was in the beginning throes of tormented agony from my husband's flagrant adultery and emotional abandonment of our family (a classic example of how chasing happiness can injure others -and- still very painful), I started studying love. I also poured through the book of Matthew (up to just before Jesus' passion, which always makes me feel a little sick). I came to some enlightenment by studying both at the same time.

The Son of God was not telling us to have gushy, cuddly, warm feelings for our enemies. He was using love, a verb, to tell us what to do, not what to feel. Love, the action, (hitherto "love") precedes love, the feeling (hitherto "adoration"). Love is not  always easy. Even with people we feel adoration for, love is frequently very difficult. Example: Childbirth; Example: Looking out for the welfare of a rebellious teenager; Example: Making sacrifices for your spouse's career or your children's education. I bet you can think of some examples of love's difficulty, too. Love is hard work. (This is not, however, what is meant by the term "tough love," in case you are interested. I read that book, too. "Tough love" is a totally different, and worldly, action.)

Jesus did not command us to adore our enemies. He commanded that we love them. It is really not that difficult of a concept to comrehend... when using the correct definition. The priest in this week's sermon was using the wrong definition, just like a different priest did when last this reading was in the cannon, fifteen years ago. He instructed parishioners to try really hard to feel adoration for their enemies. This contradicts what Jesus actually commanded, which was to love those for whom we have no adoration.