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By Moristotle
[Published originally on November 29, 2012.]
According to the Gospel of Matthew (5:44, King James Version), Jesus said:
But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.By way of my first quartina*, using the end-words love, enemies, pray, and persecutors, I offer what I consider some necessary qualifications to Jesus’ reported utterance:
Sure, Jesus said about our enemies,_______________
And about our spiteful persecutors,
How the first we should set our mind to love,
And for the second remember to pray.
But nothing ever happens when we pray
Except perhaps arise a sense of love
That might unguard us from our enemies
And leave us ripe for our persecutors.
The question is: Can our persecutors
Be induced not to be our enemies?
If so, then let us look for, if not pray
For, a mutual ground with them for love.
If interests join, then common need for love
Might convince both to one another pray:
Let’s agree not to play persecutors,
And if not friends, neither be enemies.
We must puzzle out “love your enemies”
And decipher “pray” and “persecutors.”
* A quartina is a brief form of sestina, of my own devising, in which four (rather than six) end-words appear in a prescribed order in the poem’s four four-line stanzas and in its terminal couplet, as exemplified above for the words love, enemies, pray, and persecutors.
| Copyright © 2012, 2015, 2022 by Moristotle |
I am never puzzled by Matthew 5:43-45.
ReplyDeleteDeuteronomy 32:35 ‘Vengeance is Mine, and retribution,
In due time their foot will slip; For the day of their calamity is near, And the impending things are hastening upon them.’
I am not puzzled by Matthew 5:43-45 either:
Delete43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
But I am puzzled by the Deuteronomy. Presumably the writer is speaking in the name of Yahweh, who is portrayed as vengeful, not loving. I’m puzzled that Christians didn’t discard Deuteronony (and much else of the Old Testament) as contradicting the God portrayed in the New by his alleged Son, the loving Jesus Christ.
A lengthy discussion, but to shorten, the Bible does not say that either God or Jesus was only loving. Rather, both are viewed in various lights. Jesus was known to have cause trouble where wrongs were done and God as protective and vengeful is mentioned several times in the Scripture.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bettina, for the reminder that both testaments are collections of different writings, by different authors, with different stories to tell.
DeleteMorris, if I recall, we've had this same discussion several times - perspective, experience, story telling is specific to the beholder. We always come back around to the same, especially as our perspectives become part of the retelling of a story, the interpretation to include beliefs and views imposed. Good on you! I'm enjoying your writing a lot here lately.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to parlay with you, dear Bettina!
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