Bless those who curse you
Bless those who curse you is surely one of the most challenging teachings of Jesus. The thing that makes blessing someone who has cursed or mistreated you difficult is that their curse has left you wounded. It’s hard to bless and be good to someone who has hurt you, especially if the wound is still tender and painful. You can’t bless someone FROM the territory of the wound.
It helps to shift your perspective after the pain is a little less acute. The trick is to remember a time when you have been the offender, the one who has done the cursing. Then remember a time that you were forgiven, blessed, or otherwise well treated in spite of your misbehavior. Put another way, try to see yourself in the one who is mistreating you. Can you remember a time when the roles were reversed? I can. I have been forgiven, blessed, and treated well despite my missteps many times. I have even had my poor behavior and “cursing ways” ignored by people who seemed to effortlessly bless me with their sage, uplifting kindness.
I can also remember times when it would have been tremendously healing to be blessed after I acted poorly, but there was no one around with the will to offer a blessing. Do you know what I mean by that?
Remembering those times shifts the task of blessing those who curse us from difficult to possible. Then eventually, with God’s help, the task becomes easy and joyful as you bless those who curse you by drawing on the blessing you received when you didn’t “deserve it.” We bless each other FROM the inner territory of our own blessed wholeness.
Why would I bless her even though she cursed me? Why should I bless him after he curses me? Because I know what it feels like and how healing it is to be offered a blessing in the midst of my cursing.
It helps to remember that the one who curses you is in pain. Hurt people hurt people. Unless you’re an angel visiting us from heaven, then you probably know what that feels like. We curse each other because we are not well, and we do not feel whole. To be blessed by someone we’ve hurt heals us and restores us to wholeness. To bless those who curse you is to participate in their healing and by extension the healing and restoration of the wider community. This is the work that needs to be done. I say let’s join together an do it. All for the sake of love.