Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
We know that this teaching from the Mosaic law was meant to limit unrestrained vengeance. It was not meant to give an excuse or an encouragement to exact retribution in our personal lives. Jesus refined the scope of teaching of Moses so that, yes, those responsible for the civil order could still protect the members of society, but those members could no longer act out of a desire to balance the scales of justice themselves.
Without these words of Jesus people would tend toward the maximum allowable response when they were wronged. This is still true today. Think of the subtle ways we make others pay an emotional cost when they fail to give us what we imagine to be our due. Think also of times we withhold favors from those whom we perceive to be inconsiderate of us. To us Jesus says, "offer no resistance". This sort of resistance, this feuding, will never have a restorative result. It may well be that those who have wronged us would benefit from some consequences but that is precisely why we have a society of laws. And even from a legal perspective we need to remember that there is only one to whom something is strictly owed. Even in the times when society doesn't deliver on its promise of justice perfectly we can remember that it is not to us or to the social order that vengeance belongs, but to God.
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord (see Romans 12:19)
There is something about nonviolence and non-resistance that is more than a mere negation or absence. It is an act whereby our intentional presence becomes a testimony of our trust in the one who alone is righteous, the one alone to whom vengeance belongs.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one to him as well.
Our presence, our nonviolence, our concern for the other in spite of their actions, is itself a witness, just as the way Jesus bore the violence he himself endured was a witness to the righteousness and love and God.
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly (see First Peter 2:23).
Jesus is not calling us to put our life our livelihood at risk. But he is calling us step back from our human tendency to respond by seeking the most that we can get or to offer the least that we can in a situation. Our response to impositions and offenses by others is not one that is meant to be fundamentally determined by our selfishness, but rather by a legitimate concern for the other.
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.
We are not called to seek out abuse. This teaching of Jesus is not that we should find ways to offer our whole lives and all that we own in service to those who only desire to exploit us, or to give our all to satisfy their greed or laziness. That wouldn't actual be love. It would instead be enabling evil. But again, what would we give if we genuinely cared about them, if we could see their requests apart from our prejudices and protective walls? What if by striking us on the cheek their anger would be vented and they would come to their senses? The answer of just what is appropriate will require prudence, discernment, and the assistance of the Holy Spirit. But let us at least look at the walls we have built and see if we might not be intentionally ignoring a difficult call to love.
If we don't internalize today's Gospel we won't be able to be an effective evangelist as was Saint Paul. For evangelism may often entail acting with love to those who aren't acting in a lovable way, to bear with charity the initial reproaches, resistance, and resentment that we may often encounter.
on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves
as ministers of God, through much endurance,
in afflictions, hardships, constraints,
beatings, imprisonments, riots,
labors, vigils, fasts;
Let us learn that we don't need to trust in ourselves to keep score, or to assure the balance. Let us learn to let the Lord take care of us and to let our actions by a response of fidelity to him, and not simply a reaction to our circumstances.
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