Word to the Wise
Monday, June 13, 2022 - Monday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Kgs 21:1-16 and Matt 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 as well...." [Matthew]
JUNE 13 ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA
I think many of us are familiar with the expression: "Don't get mad. Get even!" This can be interpreted as restoring justice or it can be interpreted as getting revenge! In either case, Jesus offers a teaching that seems to run counter to that. Scripture scholars tell us that even the "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" statement was an improvement over disproportionate revenge for a slight offense. Jesus goes further and says that "getting even" is not the way he is offering. And that is what challenges us. He tells us to endure insult and injury and not seek to "get even." This teaching is harder for some folks to accept than the teaching on the Eucharist! However, adequate self-defense is not out of the question.
Like many of Jesus' teachings, this one raises in an audience a thousand "What if's.....?" The Sermon on the Mount is full of teaching that runs counter to our cultural and individualistic ways of thinking. I suggest one way (of many) in reflecting on today's passage is to look at the way we respond inwardly - at our anger and what it can motivate us to do in response to a perceived or actual injury. The "Don't get mad..." part of the popular expression might have a bit of wisdom in it. On the other hand, if we are not angered over manifest injustice and injury, we may need to ask if we have the capacity for compassion at all!
The Sermon on the Mount is one long examination of conscience. We cannot dismiss it as impractical and unliveable without rejecting the Lord to his face! It happened in his time and it can happen in ours. How DO we respond to what he teaches? AMEN