Swallowsrest

Epiphany 7 -2025

Luke 6:27-38

Marian Free

In the name of God who overlooks our shortcomings, and who does not exact retribution. Amen. 

On Valentine’s Day I watched the Italian movie “Burning hearts” though a more literal translation would be “Eating the heart.”   It was a very violent movie which, for some reason my Italian teacher thought suited a supposedly romantic day.  Based on actual events, the movie relates the story of rivalry between three clans in the region of Puglia.  The film begins with the gruesome slaughter of four members of the Malatesta. family. The youngest son Michele, who has escaped death because he has been in the pen with the goats, makes it his mission to avenge the lives of his parents and siblings.  As soon as he is old enough, he kills five men of the Camporeale clan. 

After this, some sort of peace deal is worked out between the two families. Instead of meeting violence with violence, recompense was to be discussed and accepted in exchange for the offense. A tenuous peace seems to have ensued – that is until the son of the Malatesta family, Andrea falls in love with the Marilena, the wife of the Camporeale boss (who is on the run). The two throw caution to the wind and, ignoring all pleas to end their relationships, run away together.. 

A third clan – the Montanari – try to make a deal between the Malatesta and Camporeale – 150 cattle for the death of Michele Malatesta.  However, the deal is not kept and. Michele, Andrea’s father is killed – presumably by the Camporeale.

Andrea returns for his father’s funeral – with Marilena who is pregnant with his child. Marilena is tolerated by the Malatesta family because the child is of their blood. Michele’s widow, Andrea’s mother, is determined that her eldest son and Michele’s heir should avenge her husband’s death.  At first reluctant, Andrea gets a taste for revenge and begins to eliminate all the male members of the Camporeale family. As a consequence of the violence his brother is lured into a trap (set for him) and killed.

At the end of the movie, Marilena manages to escape, and Andrea realises that it was the Montanari, not the Camporeale who murdered his father. His murderous violence was misdirected and now the Montanari – having deceived him into destroying their rivals – can assume dominance in the area. 

This movie clearly illustrates that violence doesn’t end violence. Hatred does not end hatred.  It is only by meeting violence with peace and hatred with love that the cycle is broken.  

We only have to look at the current situation in the Middle East to understand that retribution and revenge are not the answer to harm done. As long as both sides – the Israelis and the Palestinians – continue to demand recompense for the violence committed against them, more lives will be lost, and more children (on both sides) will grow up with hatred in their hearts. The only way to break this cycle is for one side or the other to desire peace more than “justice”, to desire living in harmony rather than living in conflict.

That is not to say that perpetrators of violence should not be held accountable for their actions, or. that there should not be consequences for horrific acts against another – whether on the domestic, local, or international front. Anti-social behaviour needs to be named and called out – love that ignores wrong-doing is not love but some form of indulgence. Love that doesn’t address the underlying behaviour may encourage, not stop it. Peace that insists that one side capitulate everything, is not a peace that will last. Peace that disempowers one side will only lead to resentment.

When in today’s gospel, Jesus insists that his followers “love their enemies” he is speaking a hard truth that few have been able to live out, because few can recognise the power and the strength behind his words. Jesus himself lived into this teaching – not by being weak and spineless, but by refusing give to others the power to determine his response to their behaviour. His apparent submission to the leaders of the Jews, to Pilate, to the cross was in fact an act of resistance. In allowing his “enemies” to hand him over, to condemn him to death and to crucify him, Jesus stripped them of their power – their power to intimidate him, their power to make him capitulate, their power to bend his will to theirs. Jesus claims power over his life by refusing to give that power to others. He will not allow himself to be dominated by the fears and anxieties of his enemies. 

This does not mean that Jesus takes abuse lying down.  Over and again he confronts the leaders of the Jews. He names the ways in which they abuse their power, take advantage of others and twist the law to their advantage. 

True love is not sentimental and weak. True love sees the person behind the behaviour and wants the best for that person – even if sometimes that person must be disciplined for what they have done. True love does not love for what one can get in return – a feeling of self-satisfaction, or of worthiness. True love is freely given from a place of well-being not of need. True love does not judge or condemn because true love recognises and accepts the motivation behind a behaviour (and forgives the perpetrator, while not overlooking the misdemeanour).

Jesus’ teaching today is difficult and demanding. For many of us it is counter-intuitive – we want to love, but we want people to pay for what they have done. Love that is undeserved, seems to many of us to be unconceivable – but surely that is the exactly the love that Jesus offers us. After all, what could the best among us have done to “earn” Jesus’ death on the cross?   

Love that is given freely and without judgement comes back to bless us in more ways and in greater abundance than we could ever conceive: “A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”  

Yes, it is a difficult teaching but. the rewards for us – and more importantly for. the world – are more than worth the effort of trying to apply it.

Tags: Burning Heart, cycle of violence, Love your enemies, Mafia, power within

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