You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'
7th Sunday in Ordinary Time A
Lev 19:1-2, 17-18. Psalm102:1-4, 8. 10 12-13. Rv.8. 1 Cor. 3:16-23
You must love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.
The Lord is compassion and love, slow to anger and rich in mercy.
The Temple of God is sacred and you are that Temple.
Be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect
Matthew 5:38-48.
You have heard...but I say
'You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.
39 But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well;
40 if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
43 'You have heard how it was said, You will love your neighbour and hate your enemy.
45 so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes his sun to rise on the bad as well as the good, and sends down rain to fall on the upright and the wicked alike.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Do not even the tax collectors do as much?
48 Do not even the gentiles do as much? You must therefore be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.'
A fool for Christ
A fool for Christ
It is strange how we understand the words of Jesus. The course of Christian history is strewn with wars. Popes have lead armies. Saints have preached crusades in which blood has flowed. Theories of just wars have been devised and preached. Always of course ‘our war’ is a just one. The result of our wars and theories of just wars is the world today where countless billions are spent on ‘defence’ and thousands are killed in conflicts every yearThe Old Testament commanded: ‘love your neighbour as yourself’. Who wants to be shot at, maimed, deprived of their family, left homeless etc? Then are we entitled to do it to others even in the name of a ‘just war’?
Jesus goes even further. “You have learnt that it was said.” Haven’t we? History is full of the misery caused to individuals whom we lump into statistics – eight million dead etc. “But I tell you…” Yes but who listens, even among your professed disciples who have left all things to follow you? “Offer the wicked man no resistance”. Is there one rule for individuals and another for nations? “If anyone hits you on the right cheek, then offer him the other as well” Do we quietly put this aside in our teaching because really it is impractical in the world we live in? “Love your enemies” does it not mean that we should do good to them, build them hospitals, homes for the poor, dams for their irrigation rather than drop bombs on their hospitals, destroy their homes and destroy their dams – all in the name of the justice of our war? Maybe because we think (secretly of course) that we know better than Jesus, we have the world we now live in, with terrorism stalking the nations and fear everywhere. Even five star hotels are not exempt.
“You must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”. Has there ever been anyone so perfect? Well, yes there has. It is Jesus himself, God’s Son, and living in our world as one of us. He preached what he practiced. In the garden of Gethsemane he told ‘just-war-Peter’ put your sword away. “If I ask my Father will he not send twelve legions of angels”? But Jesus would not ask. They dragged him away. They buffeted him and spat on him. He was like a lamb before the shearers. “When Jesus said this, one of the officials nearby struck him in the face” John 18:22. Did he strike back or offer the other cheek? He offered his whole body. As a result of his submitting to the evil man, the world has been saved and we can live in joy and peace with the sure hope of salvation.
Who has the courage to follow the Master? Have you even the desire?
Father, you gave the world to us and we have produced the one we live in. May the teaching of Jesus be our light.
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