Seeing and embracing the enemy within
1 Kings 21: 17-21
After the death of Naboth the LORD said to Elijah the
Tishbite: “Start down to meet Ahab, king of Israel, who rules in Samaria. He
will be in the vineyard of Naboth, of which he has come to take possession.
This is what you shall tell him, ‘The LORD says: After murdering, do you also
take possession? For this, the LORD says: In the place where the dogs licked up
the blood of Naboth, the dogs shall lick up your blood, too.’” Ahab said to
Elijah, “Have you found me out, my enemy?” “Yes,” he answered. “Because you
have given yourself up to doing evil in the LORD’s sight, I am bringing evil
upon you: I will destroy you and will cut off every male in Ahab’s line,
whether slave or freeman, in Israel.
The Buddhists have some wonderful
maxims that are surprisingly true. One particularly shocking saying states: “My
enemy, my teacher.” That’s surprising
because we don’t normally expect our enemy to teach us anything we just want to
defeat him or her. Right? We don’t particularly want to learn anything from
the Alabama Crimson Tide, we just want to crush them into powder! But if we’re wise, we’ll learn something when
we lose to them and become a better football team. Have the Republicans learned anything from
the Democrats in the last two elections?
If the Democrats haven’t become their “teachers,” the Republicans may
lose the next election as well. This is
not the same as the American proverb, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” This is not about everyone becoming the
same. You see, my enemy doesn’t teach me
how to become more like HIM, he teaches me how to become more like MYSELF.
In the first reading today we see a
showdown between two “enemies,” between King Ahab and Elijah. When they meet King Ahab says arrogantly,
“Have you found me out, my enemy?” Now,
if you’ve been following carefully the daily Mass readings you’ll be surprised
to hear Ahab talk like that because Elijah was a close friend and trusted ally,
but now Ahab declares him to be his enemy.
Was Elijah really his enemy?
Well, in a sense, yes he was because he stood in the way of what Ahab
wanted, like the Crimson Tide stand in our way to an SEC championship. But because Ahab hated his enemy (instead of
embrace him as his teacher), he failed to see his own sins and stupidity; he
learned little from Elijah. When Ahab
met Elijah, he should have greeted him by saying, “My enemy, my teacher.”
Take a moment to think of someone
you would consider your enemy. Maybe
it’s a rival company, like Coke and Pepsi.
It could be a political foe you face and the candidate of the other
party is your sworn enemy. Sadly
sometimes, it’s a family member, a sibling, an ex-husband or ex-wife we see as
the enemy. It could be a co-worker or a
classmate. Sometimes we may see the
influx of Hispanics into our parish as our enemies who must be stopped. Or maybe it’s all the crazy Indian priests
who have invaded our fair state! The
people who drive in Fort Smith are my greatest enemies. Some people see God as their ultimate opponent
and only want to grind him into powder, like the German philosopher Fredrick
Nietzsche, who declared, “God is dead.”
If we take this tack, we will learn little about ourselves and only grow
more bitter and egotistical like King Ahab.
I think all our so-called enemies will ultimately teach us only one
thing: our greatest enemy is ourselves.
Like that old saying, “He is his own worst enemy.” Maybe that’s why Jesus says in the gospel,
“Love your enemy as yourself.”
Do you know what we do at the end
of our softball games? It’s the hardest
part of the whole game. We form a line
while the opposing team does the same, and then we walk by and give each other
high fives, and say, “Good game.” We try
to smile and mean it, too. I think from
now on, I’ll start saying, “My enemy, my teacher.”
Praised be Jesus Christ!
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