Word to the Wise
Monday, June 18, 2007 - Twelfth Monday in Ordinary Time
[2 Corinthians 6:1-10 and Matthew 5:38-42]You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.
This challenge from Jesus is one that many find impossible to understand. In Jesus' time, and still in the Middle East, an insult or injury to someone in one's family or tribe calls for revenge. The rule in the Law of Moses was originally meant to limit that revenge but it came to mean that one had a right to at least that much revenge! For Jesus the only way to respond was not to respond lest the violence be continued. This form of revenge was a social one as well as individual. In our own very violent nation, violence in the form of revenge is terrifyingly high. There is nothing in the teaching of Christ that justifies violent behavior. The violence, whether revenge or not, may be physical or psychological, it doesn't matter. Nothing in Jesus' teachings justifies it. No amount of "What if.....'s" justifies it. Since revenge is deliberate violence in response to a real or perceived violence, it has the additional evil of creating a spiral situation. Domestic violence, violence in criminal actions, violence in combat - all of these are counter to the Christian message. That so many Christians commit violence everyday shows that we have a long ways to go in living Jesus' message fully. That so few people really support efforts to promote non-violence in schools and families shows that we have "accepted" it as an "inevitable part of life." It is not inevitable. Non-violence needs a culture of non-violence to support it. The creation of such a culture is within our resources. There are cultures on our planet where violent crime is virtually unknown. Can we not learn from them? If one wishes to pray for something worthwhile, it would be to pray that more people will work for non-violent ways of settling differences or responding to injury. As St. Paul says in the first scripture today, "I beg you ot to receive the grace of God in vain...." God's grace is not given for violence! AMEN
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