In South Africa, when Nelson Mandela won the election, he led a country that was in great turmoil from years of violence, injustice and racial problems. He knew that he had to stop the cycle of vengeance so he started, “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission.” The rules were simple. If a white army officer or police officer went before the panel and faced their accusers and confessed their crimes they could not be charged. One of the most moving cases was a police officer who had, with other officers, went to a poor neighbourhood and shot an 18 year old boy and then roasted his body over a fire to get rid of the evidence. A few years later, he went back and took the father of the household and tied him up, then poured gas on him and lit him on fire in front of the man’s wife. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked the mother what she wanted. She said two things: she wanted the officer to go back to the place where her husband was burned and gather the dust and give him a decent burial. And the second thing she said was, “I want you to know that I forgive you and God wants to forgive you as well. So that you know that it is true, I will embrace you. And, since my family is gone, who you took, and I have no one to love and lots of love to give, I want you now to come to the ghetto where I live twice a month and be mothered and loved by me.”
This is a story of grace and forgiveness like that in the Gospel today. Judas goes out and Jesus knows that he, one of his hand-picked Apostles, is going out to sell him for a small sum of money, the price of a slave. And Jesus says, “Now has the Son of Man been glorified.” I have always thought forgiveness was the virtue of the weak and vengeance the virtue of the strong, but it is the other way around. Jesus had the power to exact the most perfect vengeance yet he says that God is glorified by this betrayal because in it He will show a perfect love. Not because God can’t do something to make Judas pay, but because He chooses to love instead.
There is no virtue in not doing anything against people who have done evil and holding a grudge or anger against them. Or being passive aggressive towards them. There is though love, which is not the same as powerlessness, which sets the soul free. A soul in vengeance and hatred is not free. Freedom is only found in love. What is love? It is two things: to desire what is good for another and to trust in God.
Today I give you a new commandment to love one another as I have loved you. We might think that this is no new commandment to love one another. Surely before this we were to love one another. However, it was never written in the very blood of God. The part that is new is, “as I have loved you.” How has God loved us? Well, by dying in our place, by making all things new. Not by social justice but by social love where we choose to do good to those around us.
It is true that hearts, my heart, is more full of justice and vengeance than love. It can only be filled with love through grace and through no human means. I once saw a slogan, “Love your enemies, it messes with their minds.” That is probably all the world could come up with love for vengeance sake. We are called to something more, love for love’s sake, which only comes from God. Call to mind people who have hurt you right now, people who you have something against. Do you naturally love them? It is not possible. You might feel powerless to change your situation and so you are holding off. It is possible that it is too costly to seek vengeance so you do nothing. That is not freedom or love. Love gives freedom. Love makes all things new. If we can recall those same people and ask God help us to love them and ask for that power each time they come to mind, we will know the freedom of God and that freedom will set us free.
Things will not always go our way but love makes a new way for us.