Word to the Wise
Monday, June 19, 2023 - Monday in the 11th Week in Ordinary Time
[2 Cor 6:1-10 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 the one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow." [Matthew]
The Sermon on the Mount makes some tough demands, and Jesus' teaching on non-resistance appear to many, even faithful, Christians as just plain unreasonable! The flurry of legislation allowing folks to carry guns openly and without the necessity of a license points to the peculiar fact that faith can become terribly distorted when viewed through political or fearful lenses. "Stand your ground" legislation seems contradictory to Jesus' teaching, but that has not stopped the rush to defend the "right to bear arms." To all those "what if?" questions that arise, all that can be said is "Ask Jesus!"
The "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" rule was meant to limit retribution. Jesus goes further. He rejects retribution, period! All the precepts of the Mosaic Law are to be read through the lenses of love of God and neighbor. This is why the Sermon on the Mount makes a lot of folks uncomfortable. Jesus seems to be too "radical." But he asks, in the Gospel According to Luke 6:46-49, "Why do you call me Lord, Lord! and not do what I say?"
In his very challenging book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor martyred by the Nazis, warns against "cheap grace." The Sermon on the Mount can "afflict the comforable and comfort the afflicted." Which one are we? AMEN