Word to the Wise
Monday, June 17, 2024 - 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 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]
Jesus' teachings touch on both behavior and motives and can be counterintuitive in the eyes of our individualistic culture. The "Law of Talion" - an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth - was originally meant to limit retribution for harm done, but it became a kind of rationalization for revenge. The "press into service' seems to have referred to the Roman army's practice of forcing ordinary Jews into working for them. The point of these sayings is that violence is alien to discipleship. Generosity to those in need, on the other hand, is characteristic of discipleship.
When Jesus speaks against revenge, he is touching on a deep seated emotional response in an injured person. When he urges generosity he speaks to another deep acquisitive trait of our culture. Discipleship with Jesus takes in the whole person and demands conversion that can be difficult and life-long. Is Jesus being "unrealistic" and demanding too much? The human response to the effect: "Just who does he think he is, anyhow?" has to be turned around for a would-be disciple: "Just who do WE think WE are?" AMEN