The Word and Life

                                                                Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time: Year A

Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18
Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8, 10, 12-13
1Corinthians 3:16-23
Matthew 5:38-48

The Perfect Jesus in an Imperfect World

We live in a world that favors a philosophy of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  Our judicial system favors punishment and retribution.  The reality is that no one likes to be hurt or compromised.  Whenever someone does something against us a very human response is to fight back.  Who among us would offer the other cheek if someone was to strike us?  As human beings we are complex creatures who have to react to certain circumstances and work through powerful emotions.  There are so many people who walk in our midst who hold on to painful memories of the past.  Many are left bearing grudges and carry around unnecessary resentments.

The Sacred Scriptures offered in today’s Mass call us to holiness and a different way of life.  Our first reading is very clear.  It tells us not to hold on to grudges and to seek revenge.  Instead, we are called to our neighbor as ourselves.  In the gospel reading Jesus challenges us to choose another way when faced with opposition from others and whenever they do things to harm us.  He turns certain sentiments contained within the Old Testament upside down.  Jesus clearly demonstrates that an eye for an eye mentality has no place in the restoration of God’s kingdom.  On the contrary, Jesus calls us to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute us.  This wisdom is very challenging for each one of us.  This apparent pacifism goes against the grain.  It is hard to love someone who has become an enemy to us and equally pray for those who persecute us.  For example, how many times do you hear of Church communities praying for terrorists or enemies who attack the freedom of citizens?  It seems that faith communities collectively struggle with these issues also.  Regardless of our need to hit out in revenge, Jesus calls us to a more excellent and perfect way.  It is God’s way of saying, “Forget the hurt and break the cycle of bitterness and violence.  Choose the way of love!”

The simple fact remains – if we hold on to these negative emotions, they will hold on to us!  A priest once said, “If we do not transform our pain and resentment, all we will do is transmit it!”  So many of us waste so much energy in not forgiving and not forgetting.  How many of us spend our time avoiding those who have hurt us in the past?  Sometimes family members have not spoken in years because of something someone did to them or said to them.  There are often times when people wait a life time to forgive another and reconcile at someone’s death bed.  Even more sadly, people go to the grave still holding on to the grudge.  Jesus tells us that it does not have to be this way.  He calls us to transform our pain into a new path of love and forgiveness.  The greatest examples to the world are those times when we witness another’s ability to forgive even when their hearts are broken.  For example, look at the Amish community who forgave the killer of five of their children in Philadelphia in 2007 and reached out to the killer’s family.  Here was a powerful demonstration to the world that things can be transformed through the ability of love and forgiveness.

Each one of us is challenged to choose the way of mercy and forgiveness in order to build the kingdom of God.  If there are situations in our relationships or in our families that are still unresolved, we are called to apply the wisdom of today’s Scripture – to let go and to let God’s mercy and love to pave the way.  Let us all pray for the grace of Jesus’ example to help us in the midst of an imperfect world.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, open my heart to your ways and teach me your paths.  Let resentment lead me not but your mercy and compassion be my guide.  Help me to let go from the hurts that others may have caused me.  Enable me to see the world and those around me through loving eyes.  Amen.

Reflection Questions   

What is most challenging about today’s Scripture?

What are the blocks to God’s mercy in your life?

Do you still harbor grudges or resentments from the past?  If so, how is God challenging you to move beyond them?

Why is forgiveness important to God?  How does this impact your life?

What needs to change in your life?

How can you help others to heal from past hurts?

Wisdom of the Fathers

“How can we love those who decide to “bomb and kill so many people?” How can we “love those who out of their for love money prevent the elderly from accessing the necessary medicine and leave them to die?…

It seems hard to love your enemy, but Jesus asks it of us.  It is a teaching that is “so hard, but so beautiful, because it makes us look like the Father, like our Father: it brings out the sun for everyone, good and bad. It makes us more like the Son, Jesus, who in his humiliation became poor to enrich us, with his poverty…

…Jesus forgive his enemies and does everything to forgive them. Taking revenge, on the other hand, is not Christian.  The second thing that Christians should do to love their enemies is to pray for them. When we pray for what makes us suffer, it is as if the Lord comes with oil and prepares our hearts for peace…

Pray! This is what Jesus advises us: ‘Pray for your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!’ Pray!  And say to God: ‘Change their hearts. They have a heart of stone, but change it, give them a heart of flesh, so that they may feel relief and love.

Let me just ask this question and let each of us answer it in our own heart: ‘Do I pray for my enemies? Do I pray for those who do not love me?’ If we say ‘yes,’ I will say, ‘Go on, pray more, you are on the right path!’ If the answer is ‘no,’ the Lord says: ‘Poor thing. You too are an enemy of others!’  Pray that the Lord may change the hearts of those. We could say: ‘But this person really wronged me,’ or they have done bad things and this impoverishes people, impoverishes humanity. And following this line of thought we want to take revenge or that eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth…

Pray for those who do not wish us well: it would be nice if we offered the Mass for them: Jesus, Jesus’ sacrifice, for them, for those who do not love us.”

—  Pope Francis, comments during Mass on June 18, 2013 in the chapel of St, Martha’s House.

Image: Pope Francis celebrates Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle Parish on the outskirts of Rome Feb. 16. (Catholic News Service photo/Paul Haring)

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