Joseph Clifford Fenton
Prayer for OUR ENEMIES
We cannot begin to understand the full meaning of Christian prayer, or Christian charity itself until we realize the Catholic teaching on prayer for our enemies. The charity which binds us to God is strong enough to impel us to love even our enemies in this world. The charity which impels us to love them with a love of benevolence commands that we exercise the activity of prayer in their favor.
In the first place, in order to understand the meaning of this prayer for our enemies, we must realize the true meaning of the word enemy. Obviously, this term does not apply to some person whose temperament does not happen to harmonize with our own. Enmity is far more than mere temperamental incompatibility. The Latin word of which “enemy” is the translation allows us an objective realization of its meaning. The Latin word is inimicus, obviously the contrary for the word “friend,” amicus. Just as a friend is one who has a mutual love of benevolence for another, and whose love is such that he wills that other an important good, an enemy is one who has a true hatred for another, and who wishes, efficaciously as he is able, to bring about evil in the life of the other.
An enemy, then, is malicious and malevolent. The degree of his hostility is measured by the importance of the good of which he seeks to deprive us or the harm he seeks to inflict upon us. It is important to note that the Christian is not meant to be the enemy of any man in the world in the full sense of the term enemy. There is, the Christian knows well, one good which alone is important: eternal salvation. The Christian seeks to deprive no man of this good. He is permitted, and in some cases, he is obliged, to oppose the designs of his enemy. But he is not to be moved by hatred in his regard. He is not to hate him in return.
Prayer must be offered even for our enemies.
It is possible to consider an enemy under two distinct headings. In the first place, we can treat of him precisely insofar as he is an enemy. To love him in this sense would be to will that he continue in his hostility and hatred. It would be so to act that this man would persevere in evil. This attitude toward an enemy would be a manifestation of hatred for him. As such, it is out of place in the Christian life. It is incompatible with Christian charity.
Then it is possible to think of our enemy, and to act in his regard, insofar as he is a man. Considered as such, he has the same end as other men. He will find his ultimate beatitude only in the eternal possession of God in Heaven. The charity which is the motive force of the life of grace impels us to act toward our enemy in such a way that we can aid him to the accomplishment of that end. Charity is a love of God which involves the active and efficacious love of benevolence for all those whom God calls to live forever as his adopted children. As long as any man lives upon this earth, he is still in a condition to accept that call. God offers him the grace and the strength to be converted. We are expected to act in accordance with that grace, and that will which God has expressed in the words of the Apostle.
We seek to aid our enemies to attain eternal salvation.
The love of charity is such that it must necessarily extend itself to all living men. If any man is excluded, that is, if we really make an exception of any one person in the desire we have that all be saved, ours is not the love of charity. We love God with this love of friendship, and thereby we will the good which God desired to all for whom He desires it. Charity is in the will. It is not any mere act of sentiment or emotion. Then it necessarily involves an active and practical will that all be saved. This will necessitates the employment of that means which God has placed in our power for the procuring of those goods which we are to have through the activity of God, in other words, prayer. Our prayers, then will apply to all men, and no one can be excepted or excluded from these general prayers.
Strictly speaking, as Saint Thomas notes, there is no direct obligation for loving our enemies with any special love. Consequently, since the economy of prayer is dependent upon that of charity, there is no special obligation of particular prayer for our enemies as there is in the case of those over whom we have charge, our parents, the members of our own families, and the heads of the Church and the nation. We are not constrained by the laws of charity to show special marks of affection to all men, but only those with whom we have most intimate contacts. And obviously, the fact that a person has singled himself out by his hostility to us is no reason why we should be compelled to show him any special marks of affection.
Yet, if such special affection and special prayers are not requisite generally and in themselves, they may be necessary by reason of some special circumstance. And they are most certainly a sign of perfection in some person who performs them freely. It was an act of special perfection that prompted Saint John Gualbert to receive the murderers of his own brother into his own friendship. It was certainly an act of perfection that prompted Saint Stephen the Protomartyr to pray for his killers.
That was the prayer which, in the designs of God’s providence, was the means of turning Saul the persecutor into Saint Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles.
Special prayer for our enemies is a mark of intense charity.
This prayer for our enemies is not in any way opposed to our resisting their efforts, in due moderation of course. To balk the designs of an enemy is to prevent him, insofar as lies within our power at least, from going on with perfecting an act of sin. Resistance to an enemy, which is obligatory when the enemy attempts to destroy something which we are bound to protect, can and should be an act of charity.
In resisting the attacks of an enemy, we can cause him a certain physical evil. In this sense only the physical evil can be, as we have seen, the object of prayer. In this case, we can and should pray for the defeat of an army that is waging an obviously unjust war. Here, as in every other case, prayer which involves a physical evil is bound by all the obligations and the conditions of charity. It must not be wished or desired out of hostility, since in that case it would constitute the person who wished it as an enemy.
All of the intense practicality of charity is bound up in this teaching on prayer for our enemies. The Church does not tell us to pray for those who hate us because they are not responsible. She makes no effort to minimize or excuse the sin of hatred. The point of the matter is that she tells us and commands us to include even those who hate us in the object of our charity. Even those who seek our ruin and destruction must be the beneficiaries of our prayer. The prayer of the Church itself is expended for those who strive to encompass her destruction. Charity, precisely because it is so important, is intensely practical and realistic. To pray for one’s enemies does not involve any self-deception or hypnosis about the fact that they are our enemies.
The Church prays for her enemies.
That same austerity of doctrine has an important bearing on the prayer and activity of the Church itself. She prays and works for all those who are outside her fold. She does not strive to make them think they are in good enough condition as they are. She is unwilling to lull others into a sense of false security. There is no evil which she abhors more strongly at the present time than the doctrine of indifferentism. The Church knows that it is a sorry sort of charity which would lead a man to think that he was close enough to the Catholic Church, and that he did not need conversion. The good which we seek for ourselves and others, the good which the Church seeks in all her prayers even for her most outstanding enemies, is the gift of eternal life. The Church knows well that there is no salvation except through herself.