“You have learnt how it was said: ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth: But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well…. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you … You must … be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect:’”
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Amen! Good morning my brothers and sisters in Christ! Today, as most of you have known by now already, is the Seventh Sunday of the Year A.
A mother ran into the bedroom when she heard her four-year old son was screaming. His little sister was pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl’s grip and said comfortingly to the boy, “There, there. She did not mean it. She does not know that it hurts:’ she was barely out of the room when the little girl screamed. Rushing back in, she asked, “What happened?” “She knows now;’ replied the boy that it hurts.Indeed, it seems perfectly natural and justifiable to hit back when one is struck. And, it is not unusual to see people take vengeance sometimes far beyond the hurt that was done to them. Hence, though ‘an eye for an eye’ sounds like a command to take vengeance, in fairness to the Law, it was actually a counsel for self- restraint; that one only hurts one’s assailant to the same degree that one was hurt.
But, in today’s Gospel, as Jesus continues to draw attention to love as the spirit of the Law in his Sermon on the Mount – the greatest spiritual teaching ever given, he recommends non-violence and unlimited love as the way of life for us his believers: “You have learnt how it was said: ‘Eye for eye and tooth for tooth: But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well…. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you … You must … be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect:’”
An African proverb reckons that if the poor man is made to be aware of what it takes to become rich, he would probably choose to remain poor. When we hear the cost of Christian discipleship, we might cry out, “Lord, do you really mean it or are you for real”? Asking us to live like that would it not make people think of us as softhearted fools? But such a reaction means that we have heard Jesus correctly. We tend to ignore every often the foolishness of Christ’s teaching about discipleship; but St Paul does not. He clearly acknowledges the foolishness of the Gospel that he preaches, almost as an essential characteristic of its authenticity. Writing in his First Letter to the Corinthians (1: 18, 22-24) he affirms: “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved, it is the power of God…” That is the power of love. That God loved to the extent of giving up his life on a cross appears foolish because it is so contrary to our deepest human instinct of self-preservation which is characterized by more selfishness, more violence, more retaliation, more possessions, and more power. Hebrews (2: 15) confirms that “… through fear of death, we are subject to slavery all our life”.
That is why Jesus states that: “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to eternal life” (John 12:25). With the Sermon on the Mount, he reveals the secret power of love that liberates us from the stranglehold of selfish-love so that we can be a gift for others. Hatred kills. It does not only consume the hater but as Mahatma Gandhi famously noted “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”.
The only way to break the vicious circle of ever-widening spiral of hate and violence that threatens to engulf our world today is to see the aggressor as misguided and absorb the violence without passing it on to others. This is what Jesus did on the cross when he forgave his executioners: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do;” This might seem cowardly but who really is the strong person; the one who lashes out in anger or the one who remains fully in control and refuses to be brought down to the same level as his attackers? At his own trial, Jesus was struck on the cheek and accused of insolence. While he did not literally turn the other cheek, he did not hit back either. He simply asked calmly and with dignity, “If I have done any wrong, say it, if not, why do you strike me?” That is a perfect example of active non-violence. Instructively, he was not struck again. His restraint was seen for the courage it is, not as weakness. Yes, Jesus went to the extreme in this Gospel of non-violence because he wants to shock us into a new level of alertness. When a stick is bent the wrong way, and you are trying to straighten it out, you normally bend it over in the other direction. Thus, Jesus exaggerates, telling us to turn the other cheek, to draw our attention to a description and nobler perspective. The non-violent approach therefore does not mean that we Christians are to turn a blind eye on abusive situations or fail to work for a more just society.
On the contrary, it means giving up the right to get even while at the same time condemning all forms of abuse or exploitation of the weak. Leading the American Civil Rights Movement in non-violent resistance, Martin Luther King Jr. succeeded without ever breaking the law, drawing attention to their plight and shaming their persecutors without sinking to their level. That is not the style of our ‘macho’ world of today where one is considered tough only when one is able to hit back hard, sometimes with a hail of bullets. Yet, evidence from Northern Ireland to North Africa, to the Middle East and the many troubled spots around the world demonstrates that this approach is always bound to fail. A poster in Ireland had asked the terrorist: “You are ready to kill for peace, are you ready to die for it?” The fiery St Paul contends that by being kind to the enemy, “… you will heap burning coals on their heads” (Romans 12:20). In other words, you will be driving them crazy. What drives them crazy is the awkwardness of responding to kindness with nastiness. For Jesus however, we are to love our enemies i.e. be wholehearted “perfect” in love as our heavenly Father “who causes his sun to rise on the good and the bad alike.” That is also the meaning of the call to “be holy as God is holy” which the First Reading makes. And that is the whole spiritual life. Again, Martin Luther King would say, there is a good reason Jesus says ‘love your enemies’ it is this love has within it a redemptive power. And there is power there that eventually transforms individuals… If you hate your enemies you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.
Finally, the Book of Wisdom (11:23 – 12:2) explains that by His fatherly love and patience with sinners, God hopes to win their hearts so that they may change and become His sons and daughters. Yet, imagine how different your life would be if no limits were placed on your love and you didn’t spend your time calculating who did or didn’t deserve your love. Have a wonderful Sunday and a blessed Holy week of Lent!
+Ab Matthew Audu
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