“Our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens.”
This saying from Saint Paul is quite helpful when in the course of our lives as Christians, we face opposition and challenges from others, and we even suffer evil at their hands. For when we suffer evil at another’s hands, it can be tempting to make them our enemy, to demonize them, as it were, and consign them to damnation. But in thus condemning anyone who opposes us or causes us harm, we conveniently—or rather, dangrously—absolve of any duty to show them compassion and mercy.
But in truth, at the heart of every flesh-and-blood “enemy” that we may have is a friend to be won over. Perhaps such an “enemy” is wrapped up in a web of sin and evil, and is legitimately guilty of great wrong. Nevertheless, even the worst of sinners remains a human being with infinite dignity before God, capable—if open to God’s grace—of choosing the good. It is only the Devil who is truly “the enemy of our human nature,” as Saint Ignatius of Loyola would put it.
Today, then, let us pray for our flesh-and-blood “enemies,” asking for the grace to love them as our Lord has taught us (Luke 6:27). And armed in truth and righteousness and peace, let us ask that these enemies and persecutors themselves might be won over to the Lord, so that together we can come rejoicing into the heavenly banquet.