Word to the Wise
Sunday, February 20, 2011 - Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Leviticus 19:1-2, 17-18; 1 Corinthians 3:16-23; Matthew 5:38-48]You shall not bear hatred for your brother or sister in your heart. Though you may have to reprove your fellow citizen, do not incur sin because of him. Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against any of your people. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.... [Leviticus] 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 as well....... You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.........
It can be a very uncomfortable experience to read the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' teaching confronts us with some of our deepest (and most secret?) feelings. This can be on an individual as well as collective basis. We can easily recall our tendency as a nation to "hate" those other nations or groups who act with violence and hatred toward us. On an individual level, personal hatred of someone else can take many forms. It may arise out of a real or perceived injury, or we may have been taught as children that we should hate this or that "kind of person" or group of persons (race?). Often the motivation is based on fear. Whatever it is, Jesus goes directly at it and says we cannot justify hatred of ANYONE.
Since we cannot justify hatred, we cannot justify violence. The argument that violence is inevitable is self-defeating and we become victims of it. The further argument that Jesus is only talking about "ideals" and not the "real" world is tatamount to saying to God, "You don't know what you're talking about!" When Jesus urges us to be "perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect," the Greek word in the text means "whole" or "complete." How can we ever claim to be "whole" or "complete" if we allow violence to be an "inevitable" part of daily life? Is drug related violence "inevitable?" Is war "inevitable?" Is domestic or child abuse inevitable? Is any violence "inevitable?" No - none of it is inevitable. It is created by humans with free will! This is why the Sermon on the Mount can make us so uncomfortable. We know we can do something about this and we have failed on almost every level.
Hatred and violence can destroy hope of any kind as long as we allow it to do so. Jesus offers us the way out of it - not by some "pie in the sky" violence-free residence in the far future, but a way NOW out of it. The Sermon on the Mount calls us to listen again and know that we are not lost. The way is clear but it is not easy to walk in it. Yet, the alternative is nothing less than hell on earth! AMEN
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