“Love Thy Enemy”

Frequently in the Gospels, Jesus calls upon his followers to “love their enemies,” to “do good to those who persecute you,” “to turn the other cheek.” Most Americans think of their ene- mies in terms of a competitor for a promotion at the office, a rude and untrustworthy classmate at school, or maybe an unfriendly neighbor whose dog keeps pooping in the front yard.

I had the occasion last April to understand what Christ’s plea really means in far too many places around the globe. In my case, I was doing an assignment in Kigali, Rwanda, in East Africa. In 1994, Rwanda was the scene of one of the century’s worst instances of genocide when nearly 1 million Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in less than three months by the reactionary Hutu government then in power. Rwanda’s genocide was even more tragic because Tutsis and Hutus speak the same language, often lived in the same villages, were all Christians, and had often inter-married.

On this particular Sunday morning, I decided to attend an English-speaking Catholic mass in the church just up the road from the hotel where I was staying. The fact that the mass was in English — not French or the local language — was a recent development. It meant that Rwandans present were Tutsis who had fled Rwanda at one time as refugees into one of the nearby English-speaking countries. Besides being refugees, these Tutsis had no doubt lost many of their family, relatives and friends in the genocide, before returning to Rwanda at the end of the war in 1995 or 1996.

When the priest began his sermon on Christ’s mandate for his followers to love their enemies, I felt humbled by what the Rwandans must be feeling and thinking. While the recent past was never specifically mentioned, it was certainly on everyone’s minds and had an almost palpable presence, as the priest called upon the congregation to trust Jesus enough to be able to apply this principle in their own lives. Would I be able to follow such a supplication if I had lived and survived in similar circumstances? I wondered how these Rwandans could apply Christ’s call for reconciliation based on the hatred and mistrust that had built up between these two tribal groups? At that moment, how petty my definitions of “the enemy” seemed in my own personal life.

My own prayer as the sermon ended was one of thankfulness that I never had to experience this kind of hatred and personal violence that had turned ethnic neighbors into mortal enemies. I also prayed that compassion and love could return to these divided peoples, in a way that could eventually transcend and outshine the bitter legacy of their past.

— Tom Stephens