Earlier this week there was a meme going around on FaceBook which had a picture of a prominent congressional leader, who in turn due to their position is one of the most powerful figures in their political party.  In prominent type at top it read "Public Enemy #1" and went on to state how they and their party are ruining America and are public enemy number one. It was shared by a friend of mine.  I am keeping it generic, because it doesn't matter which congressional leader it is, if you are of one party — you can picture the leader of the opposite party and if you are of the other party, you can picture the leader of the party you are not a member of.  The sentiment and energy of the meme is the same, it stokes up reactionary feelings and agreement towards the "public enemy." I agreed with the public enemy label of this individual.  What I wrestled with, and I commented on my friend's post about my struggles as a Christian yes… but more so as a spiritual person who believe's in God's mercy and love for all creation… is the exhortation of Christ in Luke 6:27: "Listen, all of you. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse you; implore God's blessing on those who hurt you." Luke 6:27-28  The Living Bible Luke 6 is not the only gospel passage that discusses love of enemy.  In the gospel of Matthew 5:44-45, we here Christ similarly as in Luke proclaim: "But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for God makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and unrighteous." Matthew 5:44-45 I may agree with the sentiment the meme that this political leader and the party they represent are public enemy #1, but I don't know that all this naming, shaming, labelling does anything towards building the Kingdom of God, towards accepting that call to transform the world around us through following the command to love our enemies.  The path of love is not just a Christian path but a universal call.  If we take loving your enemy out of the Way, the Truth, and the Life that Christ pointed us towards and was, is that still following in the path of the Christ?  Are we still Light? Not to rationalize the negative actions of this leader and of their party — both parties have their own agendas and neither are truly altruistic in their motives — but praying for their conversion? praying for them to follow in the way of Truth and Love?  Imagining them growing in compassion and mercy just as God is compassionate and merciful?  Is that more along the lines of Christ's exhortations to love our enemy? Personally, I am worn out by all of this negative energy and polarity of naming, blaming and shaming our "enemies" when perhaps the greatest enemy to our growth in our spiritual journey is ourselves for not trusting in expressing love for our "enemies" in times like these, for not opening hearts and offering love to transform the negativity of our time into a productive, creative, restoring force upon the cosmos. I thought an imaginal prayer exercise, gathering ourselves into the silence and opening our hearts, our minds, our imagination to be illuminated by the gospel passages from Luke and Matthew to love our enemies was in order to strengthen us in our journey of expanding love, heart consciousness, light, healing upon the cosmos and the world around us.

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