Sunday’s sermon was on the seventh Beatitude—“Blessed are the peacemakers…” (Matthew 5:9). We looked further down in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus talked about turning the other cheek and loving our enemies. I said that I believe Matthew 5:44—“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…”—is the most difficult passage in the Bible.

On Monday I was finishing Shane Claiborne’s and Chris Haw’s Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals. It seems like I always find great quotes for a sermon on the day after I preach the sermon. (Bummer.) But this says very well what I was trying to say about the demanding nature of enemy love.

“One of our neighborhood kids who hangs out at our house all the time came up to us one day very upset because one of the bullies in his school was picking on him. We told him, ‘Rolando, that means you get to show him how friends treat each other. He must not know what love and friendship feel like, so you get to teach him.’ Rolando said, ‘Aww man, love is so hard.’”

It was followed by a quote from Dorothy Day…

“Love is a harsh and dreadful thing to ask of us, but it is the only answer.”