Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Mt 5:38-48)“Forgive as I Forgive You
Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time (Mt 5:38-48)
“Forgive as I Forgive You”
We have been peppered the last few Sundays with the different sermons of Jesus. He challenges us in a variety of ways with his words. Perhaps the challenge he presents to us today is the most difficult one of all. Jesus calls on us to apply his law of love. He asks us to leave the law of intimidation behind. He asks us to forgive our enemies.
To forgive an enemy isn’t a natural inclination. We have an old saying, don’t we? Hurt me once shame on you. Hurt me twice shame on me. Usually, if someone disrespects us, we write them out of our life. Have you even tried to teach a boy or girl the principle of turning the other cheek?
When I was attending seminary, I worked in summer camps with the Catholic Youth Organization of Indianapolis. The CYO had summer camps that they ran for children from 6 to 16. I was a camp counselor. Each counselor would have a group of about 10 children. The group would be together for a week. The groups would attend activities every day. Also, they would eat at the same table, sleep in the same cabin. Any time people are living together it is nice if they can get along.
Unfortunately, with children this isn’t always the case. With boys there can be fights that break out. I would try to teach the boys what Jesus taught, that we need to forgive, turn the other cheek, let go of affronts. Sometimes the boys would come to blows. I would go into my forgiveness pitch. Sometimes tranquility would be restored. Some boys would say, “My father tells me that when someone hits me. I need to push back. For this is the way a man is. We must stick up for ourselves. If my dad hears that I won’t fight back he will be mad at me.” How can one argue with that. Somehow it did not seem wise to say, “Well your dad is mistaken. As Gandhi once said, “An eye for an eye and the whole world will eventually be blind.” Someone must break the cycle of violence.
I guess the situation was also hard for me to accept because I had always been taught the opposite philosophy by my parents. The number one value of my parents was that I was to stay out of trouble. Let go of things. Walk away. You were to settle a fight as quickly as possible. If you didn’t you wouldn’t only end up with a black eye, but you might end up losing privileges at home as well.
Looking at the gospel today, we would have to suppose that Jesus would espouse the second philosophy. And this seems unreasonable to many. We can guess that one of Jesus’ disciples have been pushed around because they followed him. Jesus wasn’t like by a lot of people. If people were espousing heresy, a religious figure might feel justified in slapping a person with an open hand. Doing this was considered the ultimate insult. Jesus reminds his followers of the teaching in the Book of Leviticus which says, “You are to love your neighbor.”
Perhaps this was a law that had been forgotten. Maybe religious leaders had watered it down a little. For instance, it was taught by some that a person needed to forgive seven times. After that, you didn’t have to. At first it was thought to love one’s neighbor meant to love everyone who had been created. Later it was thought that God wanted people to forgive everyone who lives in Israel. Later it was said, “You just have to extend forgiveness to other Jews.” The law gradually was weakened to make it more palatable. Jesus put the teeth back into the law with his interpretation, “Love your enemy.”
Jesus wouldn’t want his laws about non-violence to be lessened. We lessen the impact of this law by also saying that it applies only on the personal level. We could never use this in conflicts between nations. We must make others afraid of our country in order to maintain peace. Somehow it seems like Jesus wouldn’t agree.
The world would say Jesus’ teaching about forgiveness is untenable. But we are reminded of what St. Paul says in his First letter to the Corinthians today. “Let no one deceive himself. If any one among you considers himself wise in this age, let him become a fool, so as to become wise.”
Reflection Questions:
What did my parents teach me about fighting back? How did I feel about it?
Is Jesus’ teaching practical? Why or why not?
Dear Parishioners,
Lent is a time for penance. The question is what kind of penance will we do this year? What is the spiritual advantage to engaging in penance.
One thought is that this is a chance to develop new habits. And in a way it is. A habit can take hold experts say in anywhere from 18 days to 254 days. When we consider Lent, we realize that it is six weeks. This is more than enough time to develop a habit. Say we want to commit to going to Mass each morning. If we attend every day for the next six weeks, we have a good chance of carrying that forward the rest of the year.
Another advantage to doing penance is that we develop a healthy lifestyle. Fasting is thought to be good for our bodies. Meditation is believed to be a good way to take care of our psychological health. Helping others by doing charity lifts us to a positive purpose. It lifts our spirits. These are practices that we should be always engaged in for our own good.
We don’t want to let this opportunity for spiritual renewal to slip through our fingers. We need to make a commitment today. If we fail to keep that commitment, we need to have the courage to begin again.
May Our Lady and all the Angels and Saints accompany us on our Lenten journey.
Fr Mark
P.S. On Ash Wednesday we will begin using the Northeast door of the church. The railings are now in place and the door is handicapped accessible. There are handicapped spots marked behind the new addition. The Gathering Center should be open for use the first week of March.
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