After 17 Years, a UN Chief Visits Syria and Tests the Hard Work of Loving Enemies

The striking detail is not only that a U.N. chief is visiting Syria after 17 years, but that the visit includes meeting a president once subject to U.N. sanctions. Those two facts sit in tension. Diplomacy seeks a way forward, yet sanctions existed because serious concerns demanded consequences. Peace, in this setting, is not a simple matter of declaring hostility over, and the visit does not prove that Syria’s peace is secure. It requires choosing engagement without pretending harm did not happen.

That is where Jesus’ command becomes hard to soften. The command to love enemies does not say persecution is minor, and it does not erase the need for justice. It refuses to let resentment have the final voice in the heart. The verse confronts a human instinct: we often want peace only with people we already find easy to accept. But reconciliation usually means sitting across from those history has placed on the other side of a table.

The invitation for us is uncomfortable. We can ask whether our own hopes for peace stop at the people who have never cost us much. Loving enemies begins with prayer, but it also challenges the habit of keeping certain faces permanently outside the reach of mercy.