Romans 12:20 Meaning Therefore “If Your Enemy Is Hungry

Avera: Freedom from enmity Avera is enmity set down. A feud runs on payment: he wounds you, you settle the score, he settles it again, and the ledger never closes because each side is always owed one more. Putting bread into the hand that struck you cuts the chain at the single link you hold, and the quarrel has nowhere left to go.

Mettā: Loving-kindness Mettā is goodwill offered without terms. The training aims at the hardest case on purpose, and the hungry enemy is that case: the one whose bad luck you would have welcomed a week ago. Sitting him down to eat asks you to treat his hunger as plain hunger, the same ache you feel by evening, belonging to a body that needs feeding like yours.

Dāna: Giving Dāna is the open hand. Food and drink stand first among gifts because they hand over life and strength themselves, and nothing lighter would serve: sympathy costs you nothing, while a meal comes out of your own store. He is asked for no apology, no repayment, and no change of heart before he eats; being hungry is the whole of what qualifies him.

Cetanā: Intention Cetanā is the intention a deed carries, and its fruit follows that. Two people can set down the identical cup of water, one hoping the man will live, the other hoping to watch him squirm under the favor, and the two acts ripen in opposite directions. Fill his plate with the coals in mind and you have fed nobody; the giving is revenge in a milder shape.

Hiri: Moral shame Hiri is conscience burning at one's own wrong. Kindness from the person you have wronged goes to the head like heat: the face reddens, the eyes drop, and the story you were telling yourself about him stops holding. Coals of that kind do not consume the man, they wake him, and the enemy who takes the bread may not still be an enemy by the end of the meal.