7th. Sunday (A)
(Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48)
Today’s Gospel reading is indeed, to
say the very least, most striking; but who could put it into practice? Is it practical? How did Our Blessed Lord intend it 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 live to
the full all the essentials of Christian life; but the broad extent and
wondrous beauty of the gifts bestowed on her by the Spirit of Jesus abiding
with her and in her is beyond measure. Moreover,
she lives by the Spirit and is ever developing in the service and
understanding of her Lord; with the result that there is much in her treasure-house
that we – 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 experience of discipleship in this world, and the guidance
of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Who, precisely, is God’s Gift to the Church that He
might lead her into all truth, as He lovingly recalls to our minds for her
appreciation all that Jesus said and did.
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 1st. 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.
There, under the Old Covenant, the
People of God decided that they must defend themselves and their religion thus
threatened with extinction; indeed, later they would again 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.
In the Gospel of St. John (18:22s.),
however, we have something much 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
(23:2-3):
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!’
Again, there was
a remarkable opportunity for the literal fulfilment of Our Lord’s advice or
command, 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 indicating
– but not necessarily illustrating -- what sort of spirit should animate
the children of God’s kingdom. 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 this; 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 and when 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 both bear true witness to their Lord
and Master, and attain thereby, fully and perfectly, the end eternally planned
for them.
For such an
interpretation of Our Lord’s words we can again turn to St. Paul when, speaking
elsewhere (1 Corinthians 7:40) about himself, he did not hesitate to say:
I think that I have the Spirit of God.
In his letter to
the Romans (12:17-21), Paul thus interprets Our Lord:
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.
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
totally excluded; indeed, it may be that, as we follow the Spirit, He might
lead us -- if we have become sufficiently docile to His call and responsive to
His influence -- into a literal understanding and fulfilment of Our Lord’s
words, and thus literally turn the other cheek, give to all who ask, more than
comply with the unjust demands made on us.
Such would seem to have been St. Paul’s attitude 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, and
perhaps should, 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 -- offering no resistance, turning the other cheek, handing over not
only one’s tunic but also one’s cloak – 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; His sublime words, however, can only
be truly appreciated in the context of Mother Church’s living tradition and
teaching, and only carried into effect under the Holy Spirit’s discerning wisdom and sustaining power. Let us, therefore, give heartfelt thanks to
God for Mother Church; and -- humbling 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
before 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.