2nd Sunday of Lent Year A 2020

2^nd Sunday of Lent (A)

(Genesis 12:1-4; 2^nd. Timothy 1:8-10; Matthew 17:1-9)

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In our Gospel reading St. Matthew told us:

A voice out of the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, with Whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!"  When the disciples heard this, they fell face down to the ground and were terrified.

Such fear of the Lord on the part of the disciples was traditional in Israel.  They were the Chosen People, the first to be called as such by God, that through them He might ultimately draw all mankind to Himself in likeness and love.  To attain that likeness He was manifesting Himself and His majesty – His intimate awareness of our human hearts and His cosmic power over all creation – and that they might learn from His teaching, those sinful, divisive and selfish, early Isrealites had, first of all, to fear and obey God physically in order that they might then be able to gradually understand mentally and spiritually embrace His teaching in the Law and the Prophets and finally come to love His likeness in a new holiness of life.  Our Blessed Lord Jesus -- God’s only-begotten Son made flesh -- was the Father’s supreme inducement to love Him, and we, as disciples of Jesus Our Lord are now learning from Him by His Spirit and want wholeheartedly to conceive a fear both spiritual and true as an unbreachable safeguard for our life of love as children of God in the Family of God.

We read in the book of Deuteronomy:

And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (10:12)

Such were the words of Moses in his last testament given to the People of Israel just before he died on the threshold of the Promised Land.

The Psalmist handed on this tradition, and drew from it the conclusion that those who truly fear the Lord should fear no man:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the defence of my life; whom shall I dread? (Psalm 27:1)

Let us , therefore, look at this question of 'fearing the Lord' because it is a subject that troubles some traditionally devout Catholics on the one hand, who are inclined to see sin too frequently and fear punishment excessively, while others of a more modern and liberal persuasion claim that the Gospel of Jesus has done away with all memories of such an Old Testament attitude as fear of the Lord, which they, consequently, either ignore or deride, often enough displaying a mistaken and unpleasant attitude of conscious superiority.

First of all, we should just regard the facts.   For us human beings fear is an essential part of our make-up: we fear fire because it burns and is always – potentially -- very dangerous for us; we, who have faith, fear God, instinctively, because He, the Almighty, will be the ultimate Judge of our individually sinful lives.  However, our fear of fire does not in any way prevent us from learning about it, to respect and appreciate it; in like manner, fear of God should not paralyse believers but, on the contrary, help them to relate to God in a fitting manner.  All our natural fears: the fainting we experience before the overwhelming power of volcanic eruptions, tidal waves, cosmic powers and the immeasurable abyss of seemingly endless and empty space, and indeed the threat of suffering and death, all these are but faint reflections or intuitions of the supremely sensible ‘fear of the Lord’.   Listen to Jesus:

I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.  But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!    (Luke 12:4-5)

We know, as Christians, that Jesus came as our Saviour, and that He was sent to us by the God Who wants to be our Father and to make us, in Jesus, His true children.  This Gospel of grace, proclaimed by Our Lord, is, as I have said, the pretext given by certain un-fearing pseudo-Christians who would persuade us that we should have no fear of God now that Jesus has come.  Jesus, however, did not come to lead us to ignore the reality, the truth, of our relationship with God and most certainly not to mock it; rather He came to help us to understand it, so as to be able to embrace it, and then live it to the full as His disciples.  He Himself, the Father's beloved, only-begotten Son, was the only one – being both perfect God and perfect Man -- who could teach us, as human beings, how to appreciate the Father aright and how to live in filial relationship with and loving response to Him whatever our life situation might be.   Indeed, Jesus came to enable us to realize that the distance that separates us from God and which is at the root of our religious fear of God, is, when rightly appreciated, the ultimate measure of His love for us:

God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love He had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ.  (Eph. 2:4-5)

Therefore, taking 'fear of the Lord' seriously we are led both to truthfully acknowledge reality and appreciate something of the love that surrounds us here on earth, and also to learn to entertain hope for the glory, that God tells us, awaits us in our heavenly home.  In that way, our Christian attitude to life is not only realistic, but also supremely positive and fruitful.

It is easy for people, at times, to let themselves slip from 'thinking' attitudes to 'instinctive' ones; and when this happens in the case of religious people, ‘fear of the Lord’, which should be a considered, appreciated, and supernatural fear, becomes degraded to totally natural, 'feeling fear': an anxiety before the God Who is both mighty and awesome in Himself, and mysteriously above and beyond us.  For those in this state of mind, God's exaltation easily becomes suspect, and suspicion of God is the first dose of the devil’s poison; when that happens, God’s exaltation and glory come to be seen as alienation and threat, and the devout soul can then easily fall in the thrall of blind emotion and instinctive fear, rather than walk under the guidance of faith and understanding.

God’s majesty and power, His wisdom and holiness, in other words, His transcendence, is essential and unquestionable for us who believe, but it must be understood in the light and grace of Jesus' Gospel if it is to be rightly appreciated.  God’s might and majesty, His all-seeing knowledge and wondrous wisdom, are various aspects of the One God and Father who first of all called us to Jesus, and Who now offers us a share with Him in the bliss of heaven where Jesus is now seated at His right hand.  Therefore our awareness of the greatness of God should enable us to realise the wonder that Jesus came to help us recognize and embrace:  namely, the wonder that God, so glorious and majestic of Himself, actually loves us; indeed, He has given His only begotten Son to us and for us, and, ultimately, wants to give us, in Jesus, a share in His own eternal blessedness.  Moreover, that glorious God Who is, indeed, so far above us, can see all that would approach to harm us, and He is so mighty that nothing in heaven or on earth can penetrate the loving shield with which He surrounds us; He Who is all-knowing and all-seeing has a compassion for us that is all-embracing: He knows our every thought, our every feeling, even all the secret chemical changes that can affect our physical bodies or the spiritual powers that would invade our personality.  With such a God to defend us we should be supremely confident, as was the psalmist of old who cried:

The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  (Psalm 27:1)

This total confidence in Him Who is exalted is not just the stuff of great occasions; those unknown authors of the Psalms and the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth, life, and death on the Cross, show us that the very fabric of every-day living -- replete with every-day situations – can be shot through and through with that same saving thread of total confidence and trust in the One Who, though unseen, is more real than all worldly appearances:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  (Psalm 23:4-6)

Do not fret because of evildoers.   For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.  Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land (that is, His Church), and feed on His faithfulness.   Find your delight in the LORD, and He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:1-4)

When we turn to the New Testament, St. Paul expresses this trust in and commitment to God in sublime words that only a great, great, lover of Jesus could have used:

If God is for us, who can be against us?  He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? … It is God who justifies, who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:31-39)

And finally, and supremely, Jesus Himself could say on the Cross:

            Father, into Your hands I commend my Spirit.

And so, dear People of God, let us recognize the folly of those who would scoff at the words "fear the Lord"; for their attitude is tragically wrong and reveals both a mind overcast with dark clouds of folly and a heart severely wounded and belittled by pride; for only those who know the fear of the Lord can, in turn, experience the sublime confidence and joy that enable true Catholics and Christians to overcome the world with Jesus: just as, indeed, our father Abraham was enabled, as you heard in the first reading, to leave his pagan background and set out, through unknown and hostile terrain, for the distant land of promise; and just as St. Paul learned never to be ashamed to bear testimony to Jesus but rather was positively inspired to regard suffering for Jesus and the Gospel as the supreme privilege and joy life could offer.

1st Sunday of Lent Year A 2020

1^st. Sunday of Lent (A) 2020

(Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7; Romans 5:12-19; Matthew 4:1-11)

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I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere and pure commitment to Christ.   (2 Cor. 11:3) 

‘Sincere and pure commitment’, was indeed the attitude shown by Our Blessed Lord Himself when tempted by the devil after His forty day fast in the desert; and, in order the better to appreciate the wisdom of Jesus’ demeanour and learn from the reckless folly of Eve’s example, let us turn to our first reading and study Eve’s attitude when she met with the devil and talked herself into temptation.

The devil questioned the woman, not the man; obviously, he did that not because his was a ‘sexist’ or ‘racist’ attitude – although he did most certainly despise the human race -- but for the surer success of his own plans.  What were the weaknesses that drew his special attention to Eve: was it that he recognized her as personally being of a wilful, even rebellious, disposition; or was it that he saw native curiosity, perhaps a tendency to conceit and personal vanity, as being prominent in her make-up?  Most certainly she wanted to ‘know for herself about things’, above all, she wanted to be able to form her own judgement concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil concerning which Adam had told her about God’s prohibition.   Such a wilful desire for independence from God and self-determination and self-appreciation seems to have made it possible for Eve to think she could take on, chat with, the devil, and impossible for her to recognize him even when showing himself in his very first words, manifesting himself to be what he is essentially and eternally: namely, the liar, and the most implacable enemy of all who allow him to find a niche for himself in their lives.  How tragically ironic it is that Eve, preparing herself to be so wilful before the Lord seeking to protect her, could be so very, very, simple and stupid before the devil seeking only the downfall of these two privileged dwellers in Eden, despicable human-beings that they were!

Recall again his devilish words, and recognize his endeavours to portray himself as siding with Eve against God in a pretended confrontation he himself was trying his very best to concoct and promote:

            Did God really tell you not to eat from any of the trees in the garden?

He knew full well that God had not given any such command: the couple were living in God’s garden and eating its good fruit, the devil’s words were simply a ruse to provoke  Eve and find out precisely what had gone on between God and the couple still walking innocently and unashamedly in His garden before His eyes.

The very fact that Eve responded so readily to the devil was amazing; for, after all, he was evil itself!   Dolled-up, disguised, or whatever word you may like to think, he was nevertheless, himself: on this occasion somewhat of a flatterer, but above all the liar, lying as always in order to destroy.  Neverthless, Eve sensed nothing at all untoward, she just talked with him freely and listened to him carefully!!  In doing so, she revealed both her ambitious nature aspiring far beyond what God had arranged for Adam and herself, and her deep dis-satisfaction with a humble life of simplicity and obedience before God.

Adam, on the other hand, found himself caught up in an already somewhat developed relationship between Eve -- secretly alienating herself from God in her heart-of-hearts -- and the devil, with whom Eve was now in open discussion.  It was a situation of which he was apparently unaware; and surprised , perhaps alarmed, he behaved like a wimp who simply wanted to avoid trouble by going along with his wife rather than actually take upon himself the responsibility of seeing that God’s solemn warning and express command concerning the tree in the centre of the garden was obeyed -- a command originally given to himself before his help-mate had even been created -- both out of reverence for God and love for Eve:

The LORD God gave man this order: “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and bad. From that tree you shall not eat; the moment you eat from it you are surely doomed to die.” 

The LORD God said: “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a suitable partner for him.”    (Genesis 2:16-18)

No matter what God had commanded Adam, Eve wanted to know for herself, to be able to form her own judgement concerning that most attractive tree, bearing delicious fruit and – oh! how very intriguing!! -- giving knowledge of good and evil.
  

Such, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, was the situation which brought sin and death  into our lives; and such pride and irresponsibility, such ignorance and indifference, are still haunting and thwarting us as Christians and Catholics today.

Jesus however -- the beloved Only-Begotten Son of God and the culmination and sublime fulfilment of mankind -- in His confrontation with the devil, was not interested in promoting or confirming His own human awareness and appreciation of His Father’s love for Him; and He was most certainly not going to attempt to prove anything before the Devil’s tribunal. He did not need  to test, and convince Himself of, His divine power by changing stones into bread, even though it would have immediately satisfied His gnawing hunger;  nor would He -- by a farcically theatrical display – descend (quite literally!) to demonstrating the reality of the Scriptures’ attestation of Himself and the eternal significance of His mission as the Messianic Son of God to the devil, who was desperately seeking to sow but the smallest seed of doubt and mistrust into Jesus’ mind.

Throughout all this, Jesus would not entertain any wish other than that, in all things, His Father’s will exclusively might be done in Him for the fulfilment of the mission for which He had been sent by His Father: 

My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me, and to finish His work.   

I delight to do Your will, My God. (John 4:34) (Psalm 40:9)

At the beginning of the season of Lent, dear People of God, it behoves us to learn from the tragic failure of faithless Eve and feckless Adam as we, disciples of Jesus, seek to walk more faithfully with Him for the praise and glory of His and our heavenly Father; and Mother Church has given us, in our second reading, a text of Saint Paul that can help to interpret the whole situation for us:

Just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous.

With regard to his own converts in Corinth, Saint Paul said that he feared for them lest their thoughts might be, or have become, corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ, and the corruption he feared was, basically, a lack of simplicity in their bearing as disciples of Jesus, a lack most strikingly exemplified for us both in the behaviour of Eve, ambitious and conceited, wanting to know for herself and decide for herself, and that of Adam, indolent and – out of pseudo-consideration for his wife –  not wanting the responsibility of taking hold of the reins, so to speak, to see that God’s will was done.
  

As we turn directly to Jesus for guidance, we see that -- as distinct from the spineless and accommodating Adam – He took hold of the reins most firmly when the devil offered Him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence if He would but prostrate Himself and worship him.  Up to that moment Jesus, facing questions about His own power, and His position in the Scriptures, had been dismissive of the devil, answering him with but a few chosen and decisively interpreted words of Scripture.  However, as soon as the devil sought to invade His Father’s realm by seeking worship for himself, Jesus immediately revealed the devil’s personal identity and his evil essence by the irresistible power of His own authoritative command: 

            Get away Satan!  It is written: ‘The Lord your God shall you worship’.

In a like manner He gives us guidance with regard to ambitious and self-assertive Eve gladly hearing the devil speak most disrespectfully of God:

You certainly will not die!   No, God knows well that the moment you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods who know what is good and what is evil.

Eve’s evil example and baleful legacy Jesus utterly condemned by His own selfless and absolute commitment to the honour and glory of His Father, the God Who had sent Him, and Whom -- by the Spirit -- He served wholeheartedly to His earthly death, and now rejoices, in the heavenly glory of their mutual beatitude, for all eternity.
  

Of course, Eve gladly listened to the devil because his words expressed what she wanted to hear… he didn’t so much deceive her as proclaim and apparently support her secret hopes and desires in order to stir up her rebellious inclinations.

I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts may be corrupted from a sincere (and pure) commitment to Christ.

Dear People of God, the New Testament bears repeated witness to Jesus’ preferred understanding of our eternal fulfilment as our becoming, in Himself, children of God; and His whole life gives us constant inspiration, guidance, and spiritual power towards the fulfilment of that purpose.  And so it is that, in our readings today, Mother Church chooses -- as we have seen -- to give us further insight into the authentic make-up of a true child of God, by showing us how Adam and Eve both failed in that respect.

Saint Paul calls to our minds the threat and danger of a corrupted, insincere, commitment to Christ, which consists, he tells us, in a lack of simplicity in our relationship before God our Father and with Jesus our Saviour; and we have seen such a lack of simplicity and transparency at the root of the behaviour of both Adam and Eve, in his spineless acquiescence and her self-centred and ambitious conniving. 

People of God, only simplicity before God allows God’s Gift, the Spirit of Jesus, to work freely in us and form us in the likeness of Jesus for the Father … and it takes both  true humility and significant courage if such a reign of the Spirit is to become a decisive feature of our lives.  For simplicity embraces what is essential and most beautiful in the Christian life: it springs from deep trust and sure hope; it enfolds calm patience and long-sufferance; it requires a pure gaze of self-surrendering love fixed most devoutly on the Lord Himself in all His beauty, if we will but advert to His Spirit addressing, calling, and wanting to guide us throughout the course of, and even to the final dénouement of, our earthly lives for and before Him.

Let us, therefore, aspire to, love and pray for, such a humble but beautiful virtue.  Spiritual simplicity is unknown and indeed inconceivable for the majority of men and women today, but it was most admiringly recognized and treasured by St. Paul as he constantly prayed for, and most ardently aspired to, full maturity in Christ Jesus his Lord and Saviour, both for us and for himself.

7th Sunday Year A 2020

 7th. Sunday, Year (A)

(Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48)

Today’s Gospel reading is, to say the very least, most striking; but who could put it into practice, is it practical?  How did Our Blessed Lord intend His words to be understood and be of most benefit to His disciples?

Obviously, I don’t pretend to answer such questions definitively, but I will -- indeed I should -- offer some suggestions, some observations, to be borne in mind when thinking, and above all when praying, about these and other like words of Our Lord.

It is not to be expected that Mother Church should always and at any given time have a clear and full understanding of everything Our Lord said and did.  She infallibly teaches, and spiritually endows her children that they might appropriately live, the essentials of Christian life; but the broad extent of its ramifications and the wondrous beauty of all the gifts and possibilities bestowed on and available to her through the Spirit of Jesus’ abiding presence with her is beyond measure.  Moreover, she lives by the Spirit and consequently is ever developing in the service and understanding of her Lord, with the result that there is much in her treasure-house that we – ourselves always but little children of Mother Church and sincere, though still fragile, disciples of Jesus – can only gradually become truly aware of and learn to love aright, through a developing awareness and experience of discipleship in this world under the loving guidance of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Who, precisely, is God’s Gift to the Church that He might lead her into all truth.

Let us, therefore, try to recall other teaching and examples given by Our Lord, other truths of Holy Scripture, other examples of God’s saints and doctors; and as we do so, let us prayerfully invoke the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

We can first briefly recall an episode from 1^st. Book of Maccabees (1:41, 43), where a problem, such as occupies us at present, weighed heavily on patriotic and faithful Israelites subject, at that time, to an alien, pagan, power attempting to force them to abandon their  faith and their traditional practices:

The king wrote to his whole kingdom that all should be one people, each abandoning his particular customs. All the Gentiles conformed to the command of the king, and many Israelites were in favour of his religion; they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath.  

Under such threat, the Chosen People living according to, and loving wholeheartedly, the Old Covenant bestowed upon them by God, decided that they must defend themselves and their religion thus threatened with extinction; indeed, later they would feel obliged to defend themselves by fighting, if and when necessary, even on the Sabbath.

However, that took place, as I said, under the old covenant, and is not directly relevant to us who are disciples of Jesus not followers of Moses, although that covenant was Jesus’ background and nurtured Our Blessed Lady.

In the Gospel of St. John (18:22s.), however, we have something unquestionably more pertinent:

When Jesus said this (to the High Priest), one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, ’Is that how you answer the High Priest?’  Jesus answered him, ‘If I have spoken wrongly, bear witness to the wrong; but if I have spoken rightly, why do you strike Me?’


Now that was a perfect opportunity for Our Lord to exemplify the literal observance of His own words:

If anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well;

but, as you have heard, He did not do so.

St. Paul, in his first letter to the Christian community he had founded at Corinth, says in two places (11:1 and 4:16):

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.  I urge you, be imitators of me.

Again, in his first letter to the Thessalonians (1:5-6) he writes:

You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake.  And you became imitators of us and of the Lord. 

What kind of man, then, was Paul who set out to instruct the first Christian communities not only by his teaching but also, and quite explicitly, by his personal example?

We can, first of all, turn to St. Luke’s account concerning Paul in the Acts of the Apostles:

The High Priest, Ananias, commanded those who stood by Paul to strike him on the mouth.  Then Paul said to him, ‘God shall strike you, you whitewashed wall!  Are you sitting to judge one according to the Law, and yet, contrary to the Law, you order me to be struck!’    (23:2-3)

Again, there was a remarkable opportunity for the literal fulfilment of Our Lord’s advice, but St. Paul did not subscribe to such a literal interpretation it would seem.

On another occasion, he even made – or wanted to make – provision for the deciding of grievances between brethren within the community at Corinth (1 Corinthians 6:1, 5), so as to avoid the scandal of brethren choosing to sue each other before pagan judges:

When one of you has a grievance against a brother, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints?   Can it be that there is no man among you wise enough to decide between members of the brotherhood? 

And so, it would seem that, in the first part of the Sermon on the Mount, Our Lord was intimating – not illustrating -- what sort of spirit should guide and determine the behaviour of members of God’s kingdom being inaugurated by Jesus.  And it is, consequently, quite possible that we are wrong to look for precise instructions as regards our own personal behaviour in particular cases: if someone strikes you on the cheek, do this; or, if another seeks to take your tunic, do that; or again, if someone were to order you to go one mile with him, do this.

Perhaps Our Lord – being in a position to use but a very few human words to indicate and promote the spirit that should motivate all His followers throughout the world and throughout all time – was really preparing them to learn how, under the leading of His Spirit, to rightly decide for themselves how to act in all the various circumstances of life as true disciples of, and faithful witnesses to, Himself.   In other words, He was preparing them to gradually acquire the ability to recognize surely and respond appropriately -- sponte sua -- to whatever guidance His Spirit might give them in order that they should bear true witness to their Lord and Master, give glory to their heavenly Father, and attain thereby the end He has eternally planned for them.

For such an interpretation of Our Lord’s words we can again turn to St. Paul when, speaking elsewhere about himself, he did not hesitate to say:

I think that I have the Spirit of God. (1 Corinthians 7:40)

In his letter to the Romans (12:17-21), Paul thus interprets his Lord’s teaching:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the sight of all.   If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.  Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”   Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.”  Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good.

Let us therefore, once again, consider together Our Lord’s Gospel words.

‘Whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also’ .... now, such a slap was back-handed and above all an insult;

‘Whoever forces you to go one mile go with him two’ ... any Roman soldier could legally oblige a civilian to carry his military ‘gear’ for one mile.

Think on these things and surely the almost instinctive response of one thus humiliated and oppressed, would be to respond with a measure of vehemence, ‘NOT ME!’, to insist on his personal pride, his own dignity; and perhaps even with beggars one could well imagine someone saying, ‘Do you think I am a fool?’  All instinctive ways to insist on, bolster, one’s ego, to assert one’s OWN SELF. 

Now THAT I suggest is what Jesus was wanting to eradicate in His followers, that deep pride and selfishness was what these words of His were meant to sift out from among those crowding around Him who were waiting and longing for, and would so easily – and indeed tragically  -- follow, a militant Messiah, an authoritarian, self-assertive leader and warrior!!eHHH  H

There we have, I believe, the essential point of Jesus’ teaching given us in the Gospel for today --- but that does not mean that a literal interpretation is absolutely excluded; indeed, it could be that, as we follow the Spirit, He might choose to lead one -- become both sufficiently docile to His call and responsive to His influence -- to a literal understanding and fulfilment of Our Lord’s words, and thus literally turn the other cheek, give to those who ask, more than comply with the unjust demands made on him.  Such a possibility would seem to have been at the back of St. Paul’s mind when, after making arrangements, so to speak, for lawsuits between Christians to be judged within the community, he went on to say:

It is, in any case, a failure on your part that you have lawsuits against one another. Why not rather put up with injustice? Why not rather let yourselves be cheated?   (1 Corinthians 6:7)

However, until we are at the desired level of union with God, Jesus’ literal words can be understood more broadly while, nonetheless, still engendering and expressing the essential spirit of Christ and His Kingdom.  Thus -- far from possibly crushing the broken reed – they will advantageously establish us on a sure basis of humility that alone can open up and solidly support a future full of hope and God-given possibilities.

For a final, and perhaps a more truly comprehensive appreciation of Our Blessed Lord’s intentions, let us turn back to the Gospel reading again, for there He gave what was most certainly His supreme teaching and desire for us:

Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect!

And such perfection He said was to be found and expressed in:

Loving your enemies and praying for those who persecute you.

All those other gestures -- turning the other cheek, handing over not only one’s tunic but also one’s cloak, going two miles rather than the one demanded – are only pleasing and acceptable to God in so far as they are pure expressions of Christian love.  At times, and under suitable circumstances, they could, indeed, be supremely authentic expressions of Jesus’ guiding Spirit in our life; at other times however -- times, that is, of our own choosing -- they could be nothing more than human gestures betraying spiritual ambition and self-exaltation.

A true mother will always be prepared to sacrifice herself for her child’s good; but at other times she might be quite strict and unyielding, as was once the case with me in my childhood.  It seems I was insistent on wanting to put pepper on my dinner myself.  My mother explained that she had already put enough on for me; but, nevertheless, I wanted to shake the pepper out myself.  She finally gave way to my insistence and indulged me.  I shook out pepper with gusto and then, of course, did not like the result.  Then my mother showed her true love for me by insisting that I ate what was before me!!  I don’t think I ever made the same mistake again!

And so, the psalmist said today:

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

Dear People of God, Our Lord is the font of all goodness, beauty, and truth for us; isHis sublime words, however, can only be truly appreciated in the context of Mother Church’s living tradition and teaching, and only carried into appropriate effect under the olHoly Spirit’s discerning wisdom and sustaining power.  Jesus’ teaching, Jesus’ words, are meant to prepare us for eternal life, to adumbrate the spirit with which we should be imbued as children of God: all forms self-assertion, self-reassertion are unbecoming and wrong for true children of Him Who supremely loves, guides, and will, most sublimely, reward them.

Let us, therefore, give heartfelt thanks to God for Mother Church; and -- ignoring our native pride and forgetting our self-solicitude – let us, with her, open up our hearts and minds, and commit our very selves, to the guiding Spirit of Jesus ever interceding on our behalf with the heavenly Father Who, in His great mercy and loving kindness, calls and draws us by His Spirit and wills to ultimately crown us in His Son with a filial share in their triune glory and eternal beatitude.  And let us hold clearly and firmly to what is the essential aspect of today’s words of our Blessed Lord, they are meant to indicate to us the extent to which we should be prepared to go IF the Holy Spirit of Jesus living in, ruling over, and freely guiding, our lives should thus want us to follow Him.   It is not a matter for previous cogitation – subject to the devil’s snares and our own native weakness – rather it could only be the immediate, calm, and most humble response of total trust and confident obedience to Him Who is our all.